


Cold, Dark and Deep

by matchiingsocks



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe, Angst, Flashbacks, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, High School, Kinda, M/M, Panic Attacks, Parents, Romance, Slow Build, Swim AU, Swimming, a bit at least, except newt, it's gonna be explained, jorge and brenda are the best fam ever, newtmas - Freeform, past trauma, that are kinda oc's, they're all on the swim team
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2018-07-27 04:34:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 46,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7603576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matchiingsocks/pseuds/matchiingsocks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Newt was one of the best swimmers on the team and could have gone far, if he hadn’t just quit one day without telling anyone the reason. It didn’t look like he would ever swim again, and after some months no one expected him to either, until Thomas comes along. Things might just turn around after this. </p><p>Basically a Newtmas swim AU. Read the tags for more info!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! this is our first fanfic so yeah... We're two socks writing this so variation in language may occur. Warnings will be added in the notes before the chapter so please read them! Tags may change as this goes along.  
> It'll be a bit slow in the beginning (slowburn duh) but shit is gonna happen, promise. The plan is to upload every Tuesday, but we're lazy people so we'll see.  
> After reading tags and summary you should know that this is a swim au, so enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: panic attack

The distant sounds of kids cheering, diving and playing in the water had always made Newt calm, and the sounds of all his friends swimming and splashing in the water a few meters away comforted him. Right now he was sitting by the pools, watching his friends having their afternoon practice.

As he watched he took mental notes to remind Minho about flaws in his butterfly technique after the boy had finished his set, and counted Brenda’s breaststrokes so that she would know how many they were and how to improve them. Newt watched as the swimmers slowly got out of the pool when their set ended, and waited for them to be done with their usual after-training talk with Jorge. When he saw the swimmers start to part he got up and walked over to Minho who was standing by the edge of the pool with the new guy. Since they’d just gotten out of the pool everyone were still wearing their swimshorts and bathingsuits and Newt could get a good look on the new guy. He was around as tall as Minho, but had leaner muscles. That would give an advantage if the guy was doing long-distance swimming. Newt had heard Minho and Brenda talk about him, about how good he was, and after the training sessions Newt had seen he was keen to agree. The new kid was good. When he got closer Minho looked at him and nudged Thomas side.  
“Thomas, this is Newt, the guy I talked about earlier.” As Minho said this Thomas turned around and looked Newt up and down quickly. Before Newt could think more about what that look was about Thomas gave a bright smile.  
“Hi Newt. So what are you doing here, since you don’t train I mean.” Newt felt his cheeks heat up at the question. Admittedly it seemed a bit strange of him to just watch them train, but he was a friend of Jorge and most of the people on the team.  
“Just passing my time. And someone has to tell these two what they’ve got to improve,” Newt said as he made a gesture towards Brenda and Minho.  
“Especially since I won’t do it.” Everyone turned to see Jorge standing there, trying to look threatening, but his small smile gave him away.  
Newt was about to answer with a witty response when he felt a hard shove in his side and he fell.

At first Newt wasn’t really sure what had happened, but when he opened his mouth and felt the water rush in, his chest constricted and his mind blanked. All he could think of was hands holding him down, his lungs ready to burst and all the water around him turned to white foam from his struggles. He was vaguely aware that he was thrashing around in panic, trying to hold onto something or get up, but it was just a reflex to survive and he could feel how he sunk. After not even ten seconds he felt a pair of strong arms close around his waist and he gasped as he resurfaced, gripping tightly at the shoulders of the person who saved him.

Newt felt how several hands hoisted him up over the edge and as soon as he was safe on the floor he scrambled away, not even sure if he was screaming or not. He could hear sounds around him, mumbling, running, all of it seeming so far away. There was someone talking as well, but the words were just a blur. As Newt focused he could recognise the voice. Slowly the black dots in his vision disappeared and he could hear more clearly. Minho was sitting next to him, talking and looking worried. Newt gripped his shoulder and stared at Minho until his chest didn’t feel like it was going to explode anymore and after a while Newt sat up.  
“You okay man,” Minho asked as he rubbed soothing circles on Newt’s back. All Newt could do in response was nodd. Tearing his eyes away from Minho he saw Brenda and Jorge, and behind them the whole swim team, including Thomas. All of them looked at him with a shocked expression.  
He had never told them what happened, but after this they might just figure out. That thought made it all too much. He stood up and bolted, pushing Minho out of the way as he ran out of the pools.

Once Newt had run out through the doors, Minho spun on his heel and glared at Aris.  
“How could you be such an idiot!” He was about to walk up to Aris and punch him when Brenda jumped to stand between them. Minho halted but continued to glare at the other boy.  
“H-how was I supposed to know that he would freak out! And Gally was the one who dared me to do it in the first place,” Aris said as he took a few steps back, obviously frightened by Minho’s temper.  
“That’s not an excuse you shuckface, use your damn brains!” Minho was about to jump at Aris again when Jorge started to bark out orders.  
“All of you, to the showers, now. Minho, Brenda, you two stay here.”  
Everyone hurried to the locker rooms, but Thomas lingered. Jorge heaved a sigh and looked at him.  
“What are still doing here greenie?”  
Thomas squirmed a bit before answering. “Well since I was the one pulling Newt out of the water I think I deserve an explanation.”  
“You think it’s up to us to give it to you? Beat it, or else you’ll have to do ten extra laps next practice,” Jorge said and pointed at the locker rooms. Thomas blushed but complied, almost running to the locker rooms. As soon as the door closed behind him Brenda spoke.  
“Someone should go after him, make sure he’s okay you know.”  
Jorge sighed as if being tired and nodded. “Minho, you go. Me and Brenda will stay here and pack things up.”  
“Yeah okay,” was all Minho said before running towards the locker rooms to get his things.  
When they were alone Brenda turned to Jorge.  
“There has to be a way to help Newt with this,” she said.  
“We’ve tried helping him hermana, but he’s too stubborn to let us. We can only try to be there for him.” Jorge put his hand on Brenda’s shoulder to comfort the upset girl.  
“This isn’t fair Jorge. Swimming was his life and look at him now! This was way worse than last time.” Brenda blinked furiously as she tried to hold the tears back. Newt was like a brother to her and to see him suffer like this made her blood boil. “I just… I thought it would get better you know?” A few tears slipped but she furiously wiped them away. Jorge pulled her closer and put his arm around Brenda’s shoulders.  
“Me too Brenda... “

***

Newt’s clothes were still wet from the water when he got into his car. He knew he would soak the seats but he didn’t care. The first tears fell down on his cheeks when he started the car and sped away. Without even thinking about where he was going, Newt drove through the city and took turn after turn until he was out on the open road. He drove the same way out to the woods as he had done last time this happened. Tears were now freely rolling down on his cheeks in shock and rage as he continued to drive away from the city. After ten minutes of driving in silence Newt stopped the car in the middle of the woods. Immediately images from last time flooded his mind.

_“This is impossible! I will never be able to do this again!” Newt screamed as he pushed Minho to the side and ran away from the pools and into the locker rooms to grab his stuff._  
_“Hey!” Minho shouted from behind “Where do you think you’re going?” Newt ignored Minho's questions as he continued to stuff his things into his bag and run out of the building._  
_When he was seated in his car he furiously started the engine and sped away, thinking that he might be able so just drive away from his problems and leave everything and everyone behind. He was so mad at himself for being so weak and for treating Minho the way he did, but there were no going back now. He drove without knowing where he was going, he just continued to drive until he finally stopped in the middle of the woods outside of their city where he’d been countless of times with Jorge and Brenda just to get away from reality for a little while. Turning off the engine and opening the door he got out, walked up in front of the car and sat down on the hood._  
_As he sat down and just thought about everything that happened the first tears rolled down his cheeks. They were filled with every single emotion in Newt’s entire body and he couldn’t stop them from falling. He sat there in silence that autumn afternoon and cried in the damp air until Minho showed up two hours later in his car to take Newt home again._

Newt could still remember how warm Minho had been that night, and Newt of course had been shivering after staying outside in the cold for hours. Now, however, he was cold before even stepping out of the car. Closing the door more forcefully than he had to, Newt walked over to a big branch on the forest floor and picked it up. Gripping it so hard that his knuckles turned white, he slammed it into the nearest tree. The branch snapped and splinters flew everywhere, digging into the skin of Newt’s hands and scratching his face.  
It felt so good to let out his frustration, and without pausing he took another branch, and another, until his hands were bleeding from the splinters and his fingers ached from gripping them all so hard. Completely spent, Newt sat down by the nearest tree and pulled his knees up to his chest, hugging them tightly. The sun had set some time ago, and still in his damp clothes, Newt shivered like a leaf. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, only to realize that it had been destroyed by the water. The droplets that ran down the display of the phone glinted in the soft moonlight, reminding Newt of all the late nights he had spent by the pools. All the water fights with Brenda and Minho, the sleepovers and the studying he had done there. And all the competitions and training's, with his friends and teammates cheering for him. The last thought made Newt throw the phone carelessly to the side. He was too tired to care about that.

All his friends had seen him freak out. Newt never told the team what had happened, he had just quit. And now when they had seen why they must think that he’s pathetic. He had gone from being the best in the swim team to a coward who was afraid of water. Newt was pulled out of his thoughts when a set of headlights lit up the small clearing in which he sat. The car stopped next to Newt’s, and out of it came Minho, who walked over and took a stand in front of Newt. Without a word Newt grabbed a hold of Minho’s outstretched hand and was pulled onto his feet. Together they walked over to Minho’s car and made their way back to town.


	2. chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Tuesday, which means a new chapter! Thank you so much for the hits and kudos, we're both freaking out a bit tbh. This chapter is rather long (well longer than the first anyway), but don't expect this in the future. Anyway, here it is, hope you enjoy!

Thomas didn’t really wake up the next day. He hadn’t gotten that much sleep during the night, so he was already awake when his alarm went off at 7:30. He’d thought about Newt the whole night and if he was okay after the incident by the pools the previous day. He also wondered why Newt was so afraid of water, he knew that he’d swum before because Newt still had the fastest time time in both 100 meters breaststroke and 200 backstroke. Thomas had checked the records when he had started, to get an estimation of the team, but hadn’t met Newt until yesterday. 

“Tom darling? Time to get up, or you’ll be late for school again!” He snapped back to reality when he heard his mom reminding him from downstairs. 

“I’m already up,” Thomas answered her as he climbed out of his bed and looked over to the giant pile of clothes on his armchair in the corner of his room. He grabbed one of the t-shirts, threw it on and picked up a pair of jeans too before running downstairs. His mom was just about to leave and he got down, just in time to catch her and give her a kiss on the cheek as a goodbye. Walking into the kitchen to grab a pre-made smoothie and a sandwich to eat on his way to school. He ran upstairs to grab his bag before checking his watch. 7:55, shit, he was gonna be late again. Running downstairs again to put on his shoes, he grabbed his car keys and rushed away to school. 

 

When Thomas arrived, he was just a few minutes late, so he quickly rushed down the hallway to his locker to grab his books. Later arriving to the classroom, he quietly sat down on the empty seat next to Minho and Fry. There was another empty seat next to Minho, which probably belonged to Newt. 

“Where is Ne…?” Thomas started whispering to Minho, but was cut off by their teacher. 

“No talking in this class, you know that. You’ll have to deal with that later” Mr Janson told them in a sharp voice. Thomas looked over to Minho and then down at his books before leaning closer to the boy.

“So, about Newt. How is he? Is he okay?” Thomas whispered once again. 

“Not your fucking business.” Minho answers in a low voice. Totally taken aback by Minho’s answer Thomas looks back down at his books and feels a little defeated. The rest of the lesson passed by painfully slow but when it finally ended Minho seemed to be in a rush to get out of the classroom. Thomas caught Minho’s wrist just before he disappeared among the rest of the students. 

“Hey, what’s going on?” Thomas asked, his voice filled with concern when Minho finally turned around to face him. 

“What do you mean?” Minho answered trying to sound innocent.

“You don’t wanna talk about Newt, it’s pretty obvious” 

“Okay, fine. I don’t.” Minho snapped. “But why do you want to know anyway? You two aren’t even close friends.” Thomas was once again taken aback by the the raven haired boy’s behaviour. 

“I don’t know, I just care about him.” Thomas stated. “Plus, what’s wrong with asking about it? If you just answer I promise that I won’t bother you again today.”

“You care about him? And what, you like him too?” Minho said sarcastically.

“Wha- no, don’t be ridiculous. Why would you think that?” As Thomas rambled on, Minho shook his head and turned around. “Hey! Don’t walk away! Minho…” But it was too late. Minho was already gone in the crowd. 

 

Minho continued to avoid Thomas the rest of the week, even on trainings. He wouldn’t be bothered that much if Minho could just be a bit more subtle. Earlier that day Minho had literally looked straight at Thomas, before shaking his head and turning on his heel, walking in the other direction. And Newt hadn’t returned to school either, only fueling his concern. Not being able to sit still, he had left the house in hopes of letting off some steam and now found himself outside the pool buildings. Thomas looked up at the windows higher up on the building and was surprised to see light pouring out from inside. With curiosity taking the better of him, Thomas made his way over to the door around the corner. He peeked inside and didn’t see anything at first, but then a lanky figure came out from one of the supply rooms in the back. The person walked in the shadows at first, but when they came closer to the pool edge, where Thomas now discovered a bag and some books, he recognised the lanky figure as Newt. Thomas was surprised to say the least. He hadn’t seen the boy since he pulled him out of the pool, and now here he was. Unable to contain his excitement when seeing Newt, Thomas banged his fist against the door, yelling Newt’s name. The boy in question visibly jumped before spinning around to face the door, hand gripping the shirt-fabric over his heart. When Newt recognised Thomas waving on the other side of the door he relaxed somewhat and heaved a sigh. He slowly approached the door, but instead of opening he talked to Thomas through it. 

“What are you doing here now, it’s bloody late! And do you even have keys to this place?”

Thomas leaned closer to the door before shaking his head.

“I can’t hear you, can you let me in?” 

Newt hesitated for a moment before unlocking the door and stepping back. As Thomas stepped through the door, he noticed that Newt was gripping a phone tightly in his hands which were littered in small cuts. Before Thomas could speculate any further he was pulled out of his thoughts by Newt clearing his throat. 

“So uh… what are you doing here this late? I mean, you don’t have keys, do you,” Newt asked. 

“I was restless so I decided to go for a walk. And no, I don’t have keys, I wasn’t really planning on going inside.” Thomas noticed Newt’s free hand play with the hem of his shirt, and his eyes darted from Thomas to the door. 

“Yeah ok,” Newt said. 

“Hey Newt, is something wrong? You seem very nervous.” At that Newt ran his hand through his hair as he shook his head. 

“Just school you know,” was Newt’s only reply. Thomas found that hard to believe. After the experience of dragging a terrified Newt out of the water it was obvious that there was something more Newt’s tense body language. He had been worried all week, and curious of course. Everyone on the team was, and when Brenda and Minho weren’t around, it was their favourite topic of discussion. As the silence grew heavier and Thomas mind grew louder, he decided to just ask. 

“Newt. Why did you freak out when Aris pushed you into the water?” 

Newt’s head snapped up from where it was staring at the ground, and he took some steps back without seeming to know he did it. 

“It’s none of your bloody business,” Newt spat as he spun around and stalked over to his books, practically throwing them into his bag. Thomas was surprised by the sudden change in Newt’s behaviour, and also slightly irritated. He had just asked a question, there really wasn’t a need to become angry with him. 

“Um okay, but just so you know, I was the one pulling you out of the water.” Newt’s shoulders went stiff when Thomas said that. When he spoke next, Newt didn’t bother to turn around. 

“Yeah, thanks a lot. You know, Minho is also excellent at that so I don’t exactly owe you anything.”

Thomas sighed, trying to think of ways to calm Newt down. He was tired and wasn’t in the mood to fight someone.

“I didn’t mean it like that, just-” Newt now turned around and the look on the blondes face made the words die in Thomas throat.  

“Then what do you mean? I don’t want to talk about this, especially not with you. So just leave me alone.” Newt pushed past Thomas and made for the door, when Thomas grabbed his arm to stop him. Instantly Newt tried to pull away but Thomas wouldn’t let him. 

“Okay, apparently we got off on the wrong foot here.” Newt janked his arm free and turned to Thomas, a scowl on his face. 

“That’s an understatement,” Newt responded. 

“Yeah well, I’m sorry either way. I’m an asshole.” At that, Newt’s scowl turned softer. Thomas took that as an invitation to continue to speak. “I was just curious you know? I mean you were on the team before, actually one of the best. Then you disappear for a week, and now I find you here in the middle of the night. You’re like one of those mysterious guys in teen novels!” Thomas fears he overstepped a line as soon as he’s done talking, but when Newt’s scowl disappears and he starts to chuckle instead, Thomas relaxes. 

“Yeah, well the only difference is that I’m real then,” Newt responds. He gives Thomas a lopsided smile, before he sighs and walks back to where he earlier had his books and sits down. “I guess that I should apologise too then. I don’t like it when people get too nosy, so yeah… sorry for lashing out at you.” Newt isn’t looking at Thomas as he talks, he just stares out at the water in front of him, seemingly deep in thought. Thomas goes over to Newt and sits down next to the boy. They sit there in silence, just staring off ahead. Thomas makes an excellent job in not asking questions, if he may say so himself, but he soon can’t contain his curiosity. 

“Newt, why did you come here this late? You don’t have to answer, but…” Thomas bites his bottom lip as he waits for an answer. Before looking over at Thomas, the blonde boy rubs at his eyes. 

“Problems at home. It’s better to be here, and I know Jorge well enough to have a key.”

“So the pools is like a safe haven,” Thomas asks.

“Something like that,” Newt murmurs. 

The silence returns, but it doesn’t take long for Thomas to break it. 

“Do you miss swimming?” Thomas knows he might overstep the line once again, but he’s desperate to get some kind of answers. Newt only nods in response, still looking at the water. He waits, but when it becomes clear that Newt won’t say anything, Thomas looks out over the water as well. He let his mind wander as it wants, skipping from one thought to the next. The first ones are about Newt. 

 

Why is he afraid of water? Has he tried to get rid of his fear? How does he know Jorge, other than as the coach for the swim team? What are the problems at home? All questions but no answers and it is slowly driving Thomas mad. He had hoped that meeting Newt would clear some of them away, but it had only succeeded in creating new ones. He decided to drop the topic, as it only made his head spin. Instead he thought back to before he had moved.

Thomas had lived with his family just by the west coast, and they had spent a lot of time by the ocean. That’s where his parents had taught him to swim, and he could still remember the joy from when he first managed to swim from his mother to his father without help. A small smile plays on his lips as the memory fills his mind. It brought him to another memory, one with him and his cousin Chuck. 

Chuck and his parents were visiting for the first time in a while, and Thomas then learned that Chuck didn’t know how to swim. Thomas, of course, made it his mission to teach the younger boy how to do so. It had been a long and hard process, but it was worth it in the end.

Suddenly Thomas got an idea. He turned to Newt and gripped his arm. 

“Maybe I can help you get rid of your fear!”

 

***

 

Newt almost jumped out of his skin when Thomas suddenly turned to him and gripped his arm. It took every ounce of self-control to not kick the boy in the ribs, but he managed.

When Thomas announced his idea, Newt just shrugged Thomas hand off and turned back to the water. 

“Don’t you think I’ve tried already,” Newt answers. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Newt could see Thomas expression turn from excited to defeated. The look didn’t suit him, but Newt didn’t want to care. He had already opened up too much. They had just met and Newt had already told him more during this first hour of talking to him, than he had told Minho in the first three years of knowing him. Maybe the difference was that Thomas was persistent in his questioning, whereas Minho had just backed off. But there was something more to it. For some strange reason it felt right to trust Thomas. Newt had tried to find a hint of something when they spoke, anger, cruelty or even amusement at Newt’s ridiculous problems. Yet how hard he tried, Newt couldn’t see it. There was only concern and compassion, and also a spark of curiosity, as if his questions weren’t a big enough give-away for that. So to some extent he trusted Thomas, even though he didn’t want to.

“I taught my cousin to swim,” Thomas said, which made Newt look over. “He was afraid too, but more so of sharks rather than of water itself.” Thomas winced as he said the last part, scared that he had stepped on Newt’s toes. Newt just shook his head to say that it was okay and Thomas continued. 

“It took a while, but it worked. I mean, I’m not an expert, but I might be able to help? You said you’d tried but… I don’t know, it just feels like I could help you.” Thomas looked at him with big eyes, and Newt wanted to look away but he couldn’t. Was Thomas even aware that his puppy-eyes were a weapon? Newt sighs.

“Look, I’m grateful for the offer, but I seriously doubt that you could help me.” As the words leaves Newt’s mouth, Thomas hopeful puppy-eyes turns defeated. Before either of them could say anything else Newt’s phone started to ring. 

 

The phone signal made Thomas jump slightly, and he watched as Newt picked up and turned away. Thomas hadn’t noticed it earlier but it was an old flip-phone, similar to one he had had as a kid. Newt had probably had his phone on him when Aris pushed him into the pool, and used this until he could buy a new one. 

“Hello?” Newt paused and listened to the person on the other end. The voice was loud enough for Thomas to hear it, and Newt tensed slightly. “Calm down, I’m at the pools, I told you before I left… No of course not I-” Thomas heard the voice cut Newt off, yet it was too low to make out any words. “Mum please, you’re overreacting.” Thomas didn’t mean to pry, but at the mention of Newt’s mom he listened more intently. Maybe this could give him a clue to why Newt was here tonight, other than ‘Problems at home.’  It seemed as if the woman had started yelling for real, and he could barely make out the words. 

_ “Don’t expect the door to be open! … find somewhere else…”  _

“Please can you let me talk?” Before Newt even finished the sentence, the call was cut and Thomas could hear the beeping indicating that the other person had hung up. The blonde boy sighed and put his phone back into his pocket. Thomas was about to ask when Newt interrupted him. 

“Please don’t. I don’t want to talk about it.” Newt pulled his legs up to his chest to rest his chin on his knees.

“Okay…” Thomas says. He isn’t sure what to do. Should he reach out? Just sit there? Leave? He didn’t understand why neither of them had left already, but it felt good to be with Newt. After worrying so much it was nice to see the boy safe. Thomas looked over at the clock and instantly felt grateful that tomorrow was Saturday. It was 4 a.m. and it looked like the sun was about to rise. He didn’t want to, but he had to go home. 

“Maybe we should leave. We’ve seriously been here all night,” Thomas joked but Newt only nodded. 

“Yeah we should get moving,” Newt said and stood. He walked towards the door and Thomas followed. Newt held the door open, letting Thomas walk out. Thomas turned towards Newt, only to see him stand in the doorway. 

“Are you coming? I’m sure we both need to get home.” 

Newt bit his lip and looked back inside. 

“Actually, I’ll be staying here. It’s uh… I won’t make it home, there’s no buses this late and I don’t feel like walking.” The look on Newt’s face told Thomas this wasn’t entirely true, and with the phone call from earlier Thomas guessed that Newt’s mother had something to do with the ‘Problems at home.’ He imagined the blond boy staring at the pools the rest of the night, or sleeping on the cold tiles, and it made his heart clench. 

“Okay… that sounds fancy and all, but maybe you could sleep at my place? It’s not far from here and we have a guest room.” Thomas gave a smile, while Newt seemed to actually consider his offer.

“It’s nice of you Tommy, but I mean we’ve just met and I don’t think it qualifies for a sleepover. And I really don’t want to intrude in your home, with your family and everything so I’ll just stay here.” Newt tried to return the smile but it didn’t really look convincing. 

“I promise, you won’t be intruding. And you just gave me a nickname, which I think is a big step in our friendship.” Again Thomas tried to joke, and this earned a blush and a small, genuine smile from the other boy. Newt hesitated slightly before speaking again.

“Are you sure your parent’s will be okay with it?” 

“Yes I’m sure. Come on, lock the doors and let’s go,” Thomas answered. Newt nodded before running back in to turn off the lights and coming back to close and lock the door. 

“My house is this way,” Thomas said and started to walk, Newt falling into step beside him. They didn’t talk much during the walk, but it was okay, it was a comfortable silence. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading again, hope you enjoyed! It might have escalated a bit quickly but meh. As always feedback is appreciated, and we'd love to hear what you think!  
> Also you can visit us on tumblr at http://matchiingsocks.tumblr.com/


	3. chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it's Tuesday! Again, thank you all so much for the hits and kudos, we're both extremely happy over here! Anyway, here's the chapter, we hope you enjoy!  
> TW: There's almost a panic attack in this chapter, just to be on the safe side

Newt was woken up by the sunlight that shone through the curtains and onto his face. He groaned and rolled over, burying himself back into the soft pillows and covers. Sleep had almost taken him back, when a gentle knock on the door woke him up again. Sitting up and looking around, he was surprised to find that this wasn't his room. Panic washed over him, before Newt remembered what had happened that same night. Him and Thomas alone by the pools, and then Thomas offering Newt to stay at his place. 

When they had gotten to the house, Thomas family had been asleep, since it was 4 A.M. So they had sneaked upstairs, and Thomas had given Newt some clothes to sleep in before setting him up in the guest-room. Newt thought back to the conversation they had before going to sleep. 

 

_ “Have you got everything you need?” Thomas asked. _

_ “Yeah I do. Thanks again, for letting me stay here. But uh… tomorrow, how are you going to explain the stranger in the house to your family?” Newt could feel the blush creep up his neck, but it was too dark to see it hopefully.  _

_ “Don’t mention it, that’s what friends are for. And I left a note on the kitchen counter when I grabbed the sheets, so they will expect you at breakfast tomorrow morning.” Thomas gave him a reassuring smile, and Newt nodded in response. When neither said anything else Newt looked back into the room where he would spend the night. _

_ “Oh yeah, we should sleep,” Thomas said as if he came out of a dase.  _

_ “Yeah… Goodnight Tommy,” Newt said and Thomas seemed to light up at the nickname. Before Newt knew it, he was pulled into a hug by the dark haired boy.  _

_ “Goodnight Newt.” Thomas pulled away and gave one last smile before turning around and walking down the hall to his own bedroom, leaving Newt standing in the doorframe to the guestroom. Newt was sure his blush could be seen despite the dark.  _

 

“Hey Newt, you up?” Thomas voice drifted through the door and caused Newt to come back from the memory. He had forgotten about the knock on the door earlier.

“Uh yeah, just… give me a minute,” Newt said and stood from the bed, searching for his clothes.

“Okay, I’ll be waiting downstairs,” Thomas said. Newt could hear the retreating footsteps as he pulled on his pants. He was clothed quickly, but he didn’t know what do with the sheets he’d slept in. Would they want to wash them or not? Was it okay if he made the bed and left the sheets there? Should he take out the sheets and put them on top of the bed? Newt decided on the last option and made quick work of making the bed and folding the sheets neatly on the duvet. 

 

When Newt walked down the stairs there was a distinct smell of bacon that made his stomach growl, but he tried to ignore it. The plan right now was to thank Thomas and his family for letting him stay, and then be out of their hair as quickly as possible. There were voices coming from where he assumed the kitchen was, and so Newt made his way there. Once he stepped into the kitchen he saw Thomas talking with a woman in her late forties, who must be Thomas mother. Not only because they were in Thomas house, but because of how similar they looked. Both had dark brown hair, whiskey-coloured eyes and moles covering their skin. Thomas stopped talking to his mother when he heard Newt enter. 

“Oh good, you’re here,” Thomas said when he turned around to face Newt. “My dad was called to work earlier, but mom made bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast.” Newt’s eyes followed Thomas gesture over to the food on the stove. He was just about to talk himself out of staying for breakfast as he’d planned, but before he could Thomas’s mom started speaking. 

“Please Newt, take a plate and grab some food, you must be starving!” He was about to protest when the woman came over and shooed him towards the stove, so he let the words die in his throat. A little breakfast wouldn’t hurt, right? 

“Okay then, thank you Mrs…?” 

“It’s Murphy but please, call me Catherine.”  Newt nodded and grabbed a plate next to the frying-pan on the stove to grab some food. 

When the three of them sat down at the table Newt tried to keep his head down and eat in silence to avoid questions, but Catherine didn’t seem to notice that he didn’t want to talk. As they started to eat, she began to talk almost as much as Thomas usually did.    
“So, Newt when did you and my son meet,” she asked with a smirk. “And when did you get to know each other? Thomas have told me so much about you!” The last comment made Thomas blush. 

“Mom!” he hissed, but Catherine only shook her head with a small smile. Newt, who wasn’t a person that shared his life with strangers, didn’t know what to say. He just lifted his eyes from his food to look at Thomas, who glanced back up from his food as well. Newt looked between Thomas and Catherine, trying to make Thomas understand that he wasn’t going to answer. After a long silence, Thomas finally understood and awkwardly cleared his throat. 

“Uh, we have some classes together but we actually just got properly introduced last week?” Thomas made his answer sound more like a question than a statement, as he wanted to make sure that Newt was okay with the information that he just told his mom. Newt nodded in confirmation and started eating again. The food was really good and he mentally thanked Catherine for making him stay.

“Then I must meet this person who introduced you two, I feel like you are both going to owe them a lot.” As Catherine said this she winked and Newt almost choked on his food. “And I understand that the two of you spent last night together by the pools?” The question was mostly directed to her son who blushed and nodded. 

“Uh... yeah, we did.” Thomas answered in a low voice. Newt wasn’t used to see Thomas this quiet, and it made him feel uncomfortable. Without knowing why, Newt just started talking.

“Actually… we’re going there today too,” Newt looked over to Thomas who stared at him with wide eyes. “The pools are closed, but I have a key and Thomas is going to help me with something so…” as he ran out of words to say, Thomas jumped in. 

“Yeah, but you need to pick up some things first, right?”

“Right. I should get going then. Thank you so much for the food, it was really good. And for letting me stay the night.” Newt got up and placed down his dishes on the countertop and Thomas did the same. 

“It was our pleasure. Thomas’s… Friends are always welcome to stay here.” The comment made Thomas turn around and look at his mom with stern eyes. She just smiled back to him and stood up as well. “I should be on my way, work’s calling” Catherine smiled again and disappeared from the kitchen and up the stairs after that. When she was out of sight Thomas turned to Newt and sighed. 

“I don’t think any apology will be enough to make up for what my mom just did. But I am so sorry for that, she just gets weird sometimes.”

“Don’t worry, it’s okay,” Newt said. His own mom crossed his mind for a second, but he focused back on the boy in front of him instead. Thomas just shook his head in disapproval. 

“I seriously doubt that. But anyway, are you really sure that you want to do this? The swim thing I mean. Or was it something you said to get mom out of our hair,” he asked Newt with his big puppy-eyes. 

“We can always give it a try?” Newt answered, not sure that he really wanted to do it. But something told him it was worth a shot. 

“Okay then, should I meet you by the pools in an hour?” 

“Sounds good. I should be on my way…” 

“Yeah you should.” The two of them just stood there awkwardly for some time. Newt wasn’t sure if Thomas was going to hug him like the night before. When he didn’t, Newt made his way towards the door. Thomas followed him and they said their goodbyes and parted. He walked down the street and as soon as Thomas’s house was out of sight he picked up his phone and dialed a very familiar number. When the other person picked up he started speaking without greeting them. 

“I need your help now. Meet me by the pools in five.” 

 

***

 

“I just don’t get it, you haven’t wanted to try this in months and now this Thomas guy asks one time and you’re practically jumping into the water.” Minho and Newt sat on the stairs going down from the locker rooms to the pools, and it was safe to say that the asian boy was angry. Newt had called him after he’d left Thomas’s house just an hour ago to borrow a pair of swim trunks and some other essentials. 

“I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for his mother,” Newt responded quietly as the door to the boys locker room opened. Thomas stepped out, wearing only a pair of navy swim trunks and the ever present smile plastered on his face. For some reason Thomas looked different now than last time Newt had seen him in swimshorts, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was exactly. Minho huffed and leaned closer to Newt. 

“Yeah sure, his mom was the persuasive one.” Newt swatted Minho’s arm as a blush crept up his neck. 

“Hey guys,” Thomas greeted them. “I didn’t know Minho was going to be here too.”

At that Minho stood up and crossed his arms. 

“Is that going to be a problem?” Minho hissed. If a look could kill, Thomas would be dead. He responded by shaking his head.

“No, not at all! I uh… Newt didn’t tell me earlier that’s all,” Thomas said with a slight wobble at the end. Minho huffed again but sat down. 

Newt was desperate to put an end to this awkward moment, so he stood up and walked down the stairs, while talking. 

“So uh… Tommy,” he started. “What did you have in mind when you wanted to do this?” Minho snorted, but Newt shot him a dark look. Thomas who had followed Newt, stopped and looked around. 

“Well, I think we should start by finding one of those floating mattresses,” Thomas said while walking towards the supply closet. Newt was confused but followed Thomas, looking over to Minho to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. 

“A floating mattress?” Newt looked on as Thomas rummaged through the closet.

“Yeah, in case you want to hold onto something that floats,” Thomas stated, before pulling out one of the mattresses with a victorious grin. 

“Oh… I’ve never thought of that,” Newt said, rather baffled, as they made their way back to the main pool.

They reached the shallow end and Thomas put the mattress into the water. Newt watched, slightly confused and looked over to Minho, who looked like he was intent on playing the role as Newt’s personal body guard. Even though it was annoying, he was slightly relieved that Minho was there. With a sigh he turned back to Thomas, who instantly turned back to the pools. Had he been watching Newt?

“So I think we should go into the pool and just stand in the water for a while, you know so you can get used to the feeling.” Thomas eyed Newt before he spoke again. “You don’t have to take the shirt off, but it could- I mean it’ll probably get wet.”

Newt had forgotten that he still had his grey t-shirt on, along with the black swim trunks he had gotten to borrow from Minho. 

“Oh right… yeah, I’ll take it off.” Newt pulled the shirt over his head and as he did so, he noticed a faint blush on the other boys cheeks. For some reason this got Newt’s cheeks burning, but he discarded the shirt anyway, trying not to fidget too much.

“Yes okay, let’s get in the water. Do you want to take the ladder or just jump in?” Thomas waited for Newt’s response as Newt thought  through. He didn’t want to look like a child and take the ladder but he wasn’t really keen on jumping into the water. Besides, Thomas did ask so he probably won’t think of Newt as silly. 

“I’ll take the ladder, you can jump in if you want to,” Newt said and walked over to the ladder. He heard the splashing of water as Thomas jumped in and moved around. As Newt put his feet into the water there was a prickling feeling going up his body and he shivered. He was about to get up again, but then he saw Tomas in the corner of his eye, waiting patiently for him to get in. This made Newt grit his teeth and go into the water, planting his feet on the bottom of the pool. Although the water only reached his knees, he could feel how much he wanted to get out of there. Why the bloody hell did he agree to this? And why did Thomas make him do all of this without even asking him to? 

He looked over to Minho, who was still watching him, and sent a pleading look. Minho nodded and stood, walking over to the pools edge and plopping down right next to the ladder. They shared a small nod before Newt turned to Thomas, taking a deep breath as he did so. 

“Okay, what now?” Newt’s voice wavered slightly, but he ignored it. Thomas seemed to think for a moment before answering. 

“We shouldn’t rush this. If you’re uncomfortable with standing in the water we’ll just stand here until you’re not.” 

“Then we’ll have to stay here a bloody long time…” Newt mumbled, and crossed his arms over his chest. This was so stupid, he shouldn’t have agreed to this in the first place.    
“That’s okay.” Thomas voice interrupted his thoughts and made Newt looked up from the clear water. 

“We can’t stay here for five hours, now can we?” Newt bit back. He was irritated at this whole thing and Thomas just being nice wasn’t helping. All he wanted was to get this over with.  

“Newt, this can’t be fixed in one day. You’ll just have to accept that this will take time, okay? And besides, you agreed to let me help you so we’ll do this my way.” Thomas had taken on a more determined expression while talking, and Newt wasn’t sure what to say. Every time Minho and Brenda had helped him they had let him do it his way, meaning trying to get used to the water by just jumping in. He glanced over to Minho who was giving Thomas a curious look. Was that shank agreeing with Thomas? Newt heaved a sigh before nodding. 

“Fine. Let’s just stand here then.”

 

They stood in the same spot for half an hour, and although he hated to say that Thomas was right, he was. While standing there the tingling feeling slowly ebbed away. When Thomas asked if Newt wanted to walk around a bit he was eager to do so, not only because he felt comfortable in the water, but because he desperately needed to move his legs. The tension that had been built up earlier went away as Thomas happily started to talk about everything and nothing, with Minho joining in from time to time. Newt found himself smiling slightly and being more at ease than he ever thought he would in this situation. 

When they started to slowly go deeper though, Thomas stopped jibbering and made sure the floating mattress was close by. He wasn’t sure if Thomas being quiet was better, because now he could focus more on the tingling feeling which slowly came back. The water now reached halfway up his thighs and his chest started to feel constricted. 

“Can I get the mattress now?” Newt’s voice was small but Thomas still heard, and passed him the mattress which had been behind them. The mattress made it slightly easier to continue, but Newt’s breathing started to get heavier. They continued to walk very slowly, and the water was soon reaching his belly button. By now, the tingling made him feel nauseous and seemed to pull his ribs tighter over his lungs. 

“Newt?” Thomas said, sounding worried. Newt looked at him but by now his breathing was erratic and he couldn’t form a proper answer. It had gone so fast from ‘uncomfortable’ to ‘very bad’ that Newt didn’t have time to mention it.

“Hey man, you okay?” Minho’s voice reached his ears but it was becoming hard to hear him. Newt quickly shook his head, which made him stumble slightly, but Thomas had been close by and gripped Newt’s arm before he could fall and make the oncoming panic-attack worse. 

“Let’s get you out of the water, come on.” Thomas pulled him towards the edge where Minho quickly pulled him up and wrapped a towel around his shoulders. As soon as he had gotten out of the pool it became easier to breath, but his still wet swim trunks and legs made the tingling feeling stay. 

“Better?” Minho’s voice was a low whisper, probably so that Thomas wouldn’t hear him. Newt nodded.

“Yeah a bit.” His voice wavered but he could at least use it now so he didn’t complain too much. The sound of Thomas getting out of the pool made Newt look up. 

“Uh... Maybe we should call it a day? We’ve been here for a few hours already.” It seemed like Thomas tried to make Newt feel better, but Newt could only feel pathetic. Sure, they had been there for around 4 hours, but he hadn’t really gotten far had he? The water barely reached his stomach when he freaked out so he couldn’t really call it progress. Carding his hand through his hair he nodded again.

“Yeah I need to get home anyway…” Newt caught Minho giving him a worried look but ignored it for now. “Could you lock it all up Minho, I really need to go.”

“Sure, just give me your keys, I forgot mine.” They both got up and hurried to the locker rooms, leaving Thomas behind. As soon as the door closed Minho started talking. 

“You did great today you know. Also, should you really go home?”

“Yes, I went home to get my old phone this Thursday but I stayed at Jorge’s place after that. I don’t know if she’s okay so I have to go home and check up on her.”

Newt had started to change and he tried to hurry. After what happened earlier he didn’t feel like talking to anyone right now. 

“Yeah but… I mean you could stay at my place if she isn’t in a good mood.” 

“It’s okay, I’m not-”

Newt was cut off when the door opened and Thomas came in. Newt had just put on his shoes so he threw the rest of his stuff into his bag. 

“I really need to rush, sorry Tommy. I’ll see you around though.” He gave Thomas a smile before throwing the keys to Minho. “I’ll text you later Minho” he said while keeping his voice down so that Thomas wouldn’t hear. Then he almost ran towards the exit and slammed the door shut behind him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this took a turn for the worse, as it tends to do in fanfics.  
> If you liked it or want to give feedback of any sort please tell us, we'll be happy to hear what you have to say! See you all next Tuesday!


	4. chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it's Tuesday! This chapter will be slower than the others fyi. There aren't any triggers in this chapter, so just read on and we hope you enjoy!

After Newt had rushed out of the locker-rooms Thomas thought Newt wouldn’t want to talk to him again. It was dramatic, sure, but Newt had seemed really freaked out and rather angry when he’d left. And when it was only him and Minho, the asian boy had all but thrown him out of the pools before locking it up and going home, leaving a confused Thomas behind. The day after Minho hadn’t showed up for practice either, which was strange since he almost never missed it. 

So when Monday came along he didn’t really expect either of them to talk to him. It made Thomas mad to think about really, because he was only trying to help. First and second period was rather uneventful, and he didn’t share those classes with Newt or Minho so Thomas still didn’t know if they were there. But when Thomas was on his way to the locker to get out books for the next lesson, he’s surprised to see both the british and asian boy stand by his locker. Minho spots him first and nudges Newt so that he looks up as well. They awkwardly wave before Thomas is close enough to hear what they have to say. 

“Hi guys, what’s up,” Thomas asks to try and start the conversation while taking out his books. Minho is the first to talk

“Not much, but we needed to talk to you.” He jabs Newt in the ribs with his elbow and Newt swats it away before glaring at Minho. The raven haired boy nods towards Thomas in response and Newt sighs. 

“I’m sorry I just left this Saturday. You really did help me, so thanks.” Newt gave Minho a glance that looked a lot like  _ you happy? _ Minho smirked, but before their silent conversation could continue Thomas spoke. 

“Well that’s good. Um… how about you coming to the pools after training today? We could keep… practicing?” Thomas wasn’t sure what to call it. Sure they practiced, but would Newt be okay with calling it that? The boy in question didn’t seem to mind as he just nodded. 

“Sounds good. I uh… I’ll drop by after your training then.” Newt looked at Thomas who nodded in response. They held their gaze for a while, not noticing that they had ended up staring at each other. 

“Okay shanks, we have to go to class so get moving.” Minho’s voice made Thomas jump, and Newt whipped his head towards the other boy. Newt nodded and started to walk down the hall rather fast, while Thomas and Minho followed behind. As they walked Minho gave Thomas a side glance and a smirk. Thomas didn’t really know why that smirk made him blush.

 

The week went on as usual, with the exception of Newt coming by after practice, if he wasn’t there already. Brenda stayed sometimes too, and while she scared Thomas at first, they got along more and more, much like how it was with Minho. They didn’t really make much progress, once the water reached Newt’s belly they got out of the pool. But by the end of Thursday Newt managed to go a bit deeper so that the water almost reached his chest, although he kept his hands above the water. 

When the last class of the week finally ended, Thomas got out of the classroom along with the rest of the students, including Minho and Newt. Thomas waved goodbye as he parted from the two boys and started walking down the hallway. Since they only had morning-practice on Friday’s they weren’t going to meet after school. Everyone at the school was finished for the week, so the hallways were crowded with people. He heard so many fragments of so many conversations as he walked through the corridor. Someone was going to a party, someone else was going to visit their grandparents and another one was just going to study. He reached his locker and opened it up, just to get squished between two other people the next second. He was in the middle of stuffing his bag full with books and notes that he would need to be able to study during the weekend when Teresa walked up to him. 

“You ready?” Thomas spun around at the sound of her voice and let out a sigh of relief. 

“Oh my god, Tess. You scared me!” He turned back to his locker and put the last stuff into his bag. “And yes, I am ready now” Thomas zipped up his backpack, swung it over his shoulder and closed his locker. 

“Let’s go then!” Teresa said and started walking down the hallway. Thomas just sighed again and walked up beside her. They walked through the school-doors and over to Thomas’s car, and when the two of them had gotten into the car he pulled out of the parking lot and drove off. When they sat in the car on their way home to Thomas, he thought back to when they first met. The memory was a little blurry but meant a lot to him. 

 

_ A six year old Thomas sat by the pool for the first time since he learnt to swim a year before. This was the first day of practise and he was really nervous that he wouldn’t make any friends or that he wouldn’t be able to swim the laps as their coach told them to do. There were a few other kids there around his age, but he was too shy to actually walk up to one of them. He looked over to where his parents sat and as they saw that he was looking at them, they smiled and waved to him. He smiled a small smile and waved back before he turned away to look at the entrance and hoped that there would come in a nice person that would want to be his friend. He remembered his mother's words from before. “Just go there and have fun and be your amazing self Tom. And don’t worry, you’ll find a friend there, I’m sure.” He sighed and and looked down at his hands when he suddenly heard a young female voice just beside him.  _

_ “You look lonely” Thomas looked up from his hands and directly at the pale, raven haired and blue-eyed girl in front of him. She was wearing a icing blue bathing suit with small white flowers on.  _

_ “Teresa Ivory Agnes, what did we say about about manners before we came here?” A tall dark haired man said from behind her.  _

_ “Yeah yeah whatever, I’m just pointing out obvious facts here.” The girl- Teresa said with a very dramatic eyeroll and a very convincing look that was directed to her father. “So, if you let me sit down with this lonely boy so that he won’t be lonely anymore…” Her dad just sighed.  _

_ “Okay then, I’ll be over here with the other parents if you need anything sweetheart. Be careful Tess” And after saying that, he left the two kids alone.  _

_ “Parents, right?” she said and sat down beside him.  _

_ “I guess so.” Thomas answered and looked back down at his hands.  _

_ “Nice swimshorts.” Teresa tried. Thomas looked down at his black swimshorts with spider man throwing something on the side of them. “I really like super heroes. They’re so much cooler than the princesses,” she said and Thomas lit up at the comment.  _

_ “Yes! The super heroes fight crimes and stuff and are really cool,” he said. The girl extended her hand to Thomas.  _

_ “I’m Teresa.” He took the extended hand and shook it.  _

_ “I’m Thomas” _

 

“What are you thinking about Tom?” Thomas snapped back to reality as Teresa spoke. “It better be about what movie we’re watching later, because it’s your turn to pick and I’m not watching an old documentary about sloths one more time.” Thomas laughed and looked over at her. 

“That was one time! And you said that you were okay with watching that!” he protested. 

“Yeah sure, whatever.”

 

***

As Thomas walked away from them, Minho and Newt started moving towards their own lockers, squeezing through the crowd. They both quickly grabbed what they needed and walked out of the school. 

“Can you give me a ride home? The bus is always crowded on Fridays,” Newt said as they got close to Minho’s car. The asian boy’s family was loaded to put it simply, and once Minho got a driver’s license his parents decided to give him a matte black audi R8. At first Newt had been a bit jealous, but he’d gotten so many free rides to and from school that he didn’t really care anymore.

“Sure, hop in.” 

When they pulled out of the parking-lot the car was quiet. Minho usually had music on, so it felt strange without it. Newt didn’t have to think about the reason behind the silence too much though, because after a short while Minho began to speak. 

“I think it’s good that you’re letting Thomas help you with this.” 

“What do you mean?” Newt looked over, but Minho had his eyes on the road. They we’re getting closer to the edges of town now, and the buildings and houses got smaller as they drove on.

“I mean that you swimming again will be a good thing. But there’s one thing I don’t get.” 

“And what’s that?” 

“You’ve always tried to get back to swimming your own way. You wouldn’t even let Jorge help you and he’s a shucking swim-coach. So why would you suddenly let Thomas help you, of all people?” Minho gave him a glance, but quickly looked back to the road. They’d talked about this before, on the Saturday of the first practice, but they were interrupted when Thomas walked in.  Before he answered, Newt thought for a while.

He’d never let anyone to help him, had he? Like most things, he’d wanted to do it on his own. Although, why did he let Thomas help him? Minho had had a point when he said that Newt had almost jumped into the water when Thomas asked him to, but he wasn’t going to boost Minho’s ego with saying it out loud.

“I don’t know Min, at first I really didn’t want to. It was all an accident I guess. First he just showed up by the pools and offered me a place to sleep, then it was just used as an excuse when his mum started prying. And you forced me to continue, so you’re the one to blame for this, really.” 

Minho seemed satisfied with the answer and smirked. 

“You’ll thank me one day.” At that Newt let out a small laugh. 

“We’ll see.” 

Not long after the conversation ended, Minho pulled up in front of Newt’s house. The house was small and looked rather run down. In some places the white colour had begun to fall off, and one could see that the roof had been patched multiple times. On the porch there had once been a wooden hammock but the only thing remaining now was one of the chains dangling from the ceiling. The grass had started to get rather long, and Newt made a mental note to mow the lawn during the weekend. 

“Thanks for the lift,” Newt said as he started to climb out of the car. Since the car was very low and he was rather tall, it was harder than it should have been. 

“Any time, see you on Sunday.” Minho nodded his head in goodbye as Newt closed the door. Minho hesitated for a moment before driving off and leaving Newt on the cracked pavement. With a sigh he walked up to the house and unlocked the door. He had to jiggle the key a bit, but soon he heard a click and opened the door. 

“Mum, I’m home!”

 

***

 

“Have you seen the trail-mix anywhere Tom?” Thomas was currently sitting on the floor in the living room trying to choose a movie for them to watch when Teresa walked in with the drinks. 

“It must be somewhere in the kitchen,” he said while laying the remote down and standing up. Teresa placed down the drinks at the coffee-table in front of the couch. “Come on, I’ll help you look for it.” He walked over to the kitchen and she followed right after. They opened all of the cupboards and drawers to search for the ziplock bag with their favorite trail-mix, and when they didn’t find it Thomas almost gave up. Until he heard a high-pitched squeal from behind, and turned around to see Teresa holding the trail-mix, not in a ziplock bag, but in a jar. 

“Your mum must have found our hidden bag and put it in this jar, which is why we didn’t see it,” Teresa told him while grabbing a bowl from one of the open cupboards to put some of it in. “We really need to find a better place to hide this stuff, or your dad’ll find it and eat the whole thing before we even know it.”

“Yeah that’s true,” he agreed. “ It’s a good thing he’s at work. We’ll find a better place later, we have to get the popcorn ready now so that we can start watching the movie”

“Yeah, can you do that? I’ll bring this to the tv and start the film.” Without waiting for an answer, she walked out of the kitchen and into the living room where she put the bowl down beside the drinks and sat down on the couch. As soon as Thomas was done in the kitchen he went out to Teresa who started the movie.

Thomas couldn’t really focus on the movie so he let his mind wander instead. 

“I can’t believe that  we actually survived those months without our movie-nights.” Thomas turned his head from the screen to look at Teresa, his best friend in thick and thin, whom he loved like a sister he got to choose himself. 

“We only missed nine fridays together, and those are almost the only ones we’ve missed since we started middle school.” She tore her eyes away from the screen for a second to look over at Thomas and gave him a small smile before turning back to the movie. 

“Yeah I know, but to be almost 2500 miles apart from your best friend for more than two months isn’t easy.” When Teresa had moved from their hometown in California, to their new town in east of North Carolina two and a half months before Thomas, he’d had a difficult time. Both of their dads worked for the same company and they gave both men an offer to transfer to North Carolina for a more well payed job. Teresa’s family moved within a week while Thomas’s family stayed behind and thought about it for a while before moving too. 

“I was so close to losing you” Thomas says in a low voice. 

“I know, but you didn’t so please stop being so sentimental” Teresa tries. Thomas’s family thought about staying in California for a long time since Thomas’s mom needed a job too when they got to the new town, plus that that’s where their life had been.

“I miss California sometimes, like the warmth in the early spring and to just get down to the ocean after school in the later part of it,” Thomas blurts out. Teresa looks over to Thomas once more but stays with her eyes locked with his for a while before she starts speaking again. 

“I know, I do too sometimes. But look at all of the things we got now, a better swim team with funnier team mates who you actually can hang out with outside of the pools, a better school and we live closer to each other than before.”

“Yeah that’s true. I didn’t say that i don’t like it here, I just miss it. But you’re right, it’s better here with everyone else, I really like this team. I’m so happy that they don’t have split teams here, so that we can be on the same just like when we were kids.”

“Yeah it’s fun to practise with you for real again.” They paused for a second to look up at the movie which had been playing in the background. And without turning back to each other again Teresa starts talking again. 

“I’m glad that you moved here too, it would be so different without you.”

“Yeah, I’m glad we did too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a lot of Thomas/Teresa interaction in this which is necessary for the plot (according to us). If you have anything to say or wanna give feedback then please leave a comment!   
> The last week has been very busy so there hasn't been much time for writing we're afraid, but we'll do our best to get chapter 5 done in time for next week. Bye for now!


	5. chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it's Tuesday! This chapter is very long, which should make you guys happy. Not much else to say here really, so hope you enjoy!  
> Trigger warnings: Alcoholic behavior, violence, blood mention and a lot of angst. Read carefully if this is triggering.

_ “Mum, I’m home!” _

Newt walked into the small house, dropping his bag by the door to his room to the right. He looked down the hallway which led into the livingroom. 

“Are you here?” When no answer came he walked down the small hall. As he passed his mother’s room he looked inside, but it was empty. Continuing towards the livingroom he paused when he came to the doorway. His mother was slumped on the couch, staring at the tv. There were some empty beer-cans on the table and an opened bottle of whiskey. Newt sighed and walked over to the tv to turn it off. 

“I was watching that you know,” his mother slurred, but he ignored the comment.

“Why are you drinking?” Newt took some steps forward, looking at his mom intently. 

“Not your damn business. Besides, why would you care? You haven’t been home for days!” She had started yelling now, and though he knew he shouldn’t let it get to him, he started to get angry. 

“I have been home this week, it’s just that you’re either asleep or too bloody shitfaced to notice!” 

“Don’t take that tone with me,” his mom yelled back. “I raised you on my own, I deserve some respect.” 

“Maybe you’d get some if you weren’t drunk all the time! And by the w-” Newt was cut of when a glass flew past his head and hit the wall just behind him. He gasped and ducked as his mother threw the bottle as well. As soon as the bottle shattered the room was filled with the stench of alcohol. Broken glass teared at Newt’s raised arms, littering his forearms with small cuts.

“This is my house, be respectful or leave!” 

“Calm down,” this time a plate hit the wall just above Newt, and the pieces rained down on him and into his hair. 

“Mum, STOP!” 

He waited, and when nothing more was thrown at him, Newt slowly looked up from his crouched position at the floor. His mother was standing up, wine-glass in hand, looking at her son in horror. She staggered a bit and crashed back into the sofa. Bringing her hands up to cover her mouth, not taking her eyes off Newt she started to speak. 

“I’m sorry… I didn’t- I couldn’t control my temper…” As they stared at each other, Newt noticed how her shoulders had begun to shake. He slowly got up and started to walk over to her, when she put her hand out.

“Leave. I don’t want you here right now.” At this, Newt’s anger flared up again. He couldn’t just leave her now, she could hurt herself in her current state. 

“Are you serious? I won’t-”

“Leave!” Newt jumped back when she threw the glass down on the floor. She then stared at him, daring Newt to stay. For a while Newt stared back, but he knew how stubborn his mother was, he had to get it from somewhere didn’t he? With a grunt Newt turned around and stomped up the hall, over to the door. He grabbed his bag before throwing up the door, and he was about to rush outside when he halted in his steps. Looking back over his shoulder, he yelled into the house.

“I’ll be staying at Jorge’s place, call me if anything happens.” Without waiting for an answer he slammed the door shut and rushed to the nearest bus-stop. He knew that Jorge had swim-practice with the younger kids now, so he decided to just go to his house and wait for him there. 

 

***

 

The movie ended and Thomas and Teresa went on with their normal movie-night Friday’s routine, which meant that they prepared dinner for them and Thomas’s parents. The four of them ate the dinner when Catherine and Stephen, Thomas dad, came home. Thomas and Teresa excused themselves afterwards and went up to Thomas’s room where they sat down on his bed. Teresa pulled up her legs onto the bed and faced Thomas who sat on the other side of the bed. They fell silent for a while before Teresa started talking.  

“You’ve been quite distant lately, is there something on your mind that you haven’t told me? You know that I’m always here to listen”

“Huh? Eh no, I don’t think so?” He wasn’t really sure what more to say, because there was always something on his mind. And lately it was mostly a special blonde boy. “Or I don’t really know to be honest.” Teresa tilted her head to the side as if she tried to tell him to continue, but when he didn’t she just sighed.

“I can feel and see it on you, but if you don’t want to talk about it with me it’s fine.” She looked down at her hands. Thomas could hear the disappointment in her words, but he knew that they were true. 

“It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it with you, I just don’t know what ‘it’ even means at this moment. But when I figure it out, I promise that you’ll be the first one I talk to about it.” That made Teresa look up at him and smile a genuine smile which made Thomas feel a little better inside. 

“By the way, I know that you’ve been spending time with Minho and Newt and I’m really curious about what you guys are doing.” Teresa’s usual spark of curiosity was back in her eyes, which that made Thomas really happy. And Teresa mentioning Newt made Thomas tingle on the inside, even if he’ll never admit it. 

“Uh, yeah i guess that I have. And we, um, don’t do much?” The last sentence came out more like a question than an answer but it was mostly because he didn’t know how much he could say about what they actually were doing. 

“Okay? That was pretty unclear, but I’m glad that you guys get along” The smile on her face told him the same thing as her words, because she knew that he wasn’t the best at making new friends. Then Teresa just shook her head. 

“Anyway, I was just wondering if you know anything about why Newt have stayed at coach’s place this week? I overheard Minho asking Brenda about how he was doing and if he had slept at all, and I know that Brenda lives with Jorge so I just figured.” His face fell and panic started rising in his chest. Wasn’t Newt okay? What happened to him? Why was he staying at Jorge’s place? There were so many questions and no answers and it made Thomas even more anxious. 

“No, I have no idea. Have you?” he really tried to hide his concern but he failed.

“Well, I just asked you so the answer to that would be no. But hey, don’t worry it’s probably nothing.” Teresa gave him an odd look, but he decided to ignore it.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

The thought of Newt not being okay was set on replay in Thomas’s mind the whole night. When the two of them had gone to bed, he stared out into the dark room and anxiously spun his phone in his hands. After a while Thomas opened the phone and sent a quick text to Newt before turning off the sound on the phone and putting on the bedside table. Sleep didn’t come easy, but he fell asleep soon enough.

 

***

 

When Newt arrived at Jorge’s house Brenda was in the kitchen, preparing dinner. He walked there and called out her name. When she heard him come in she turned to face him. 

“You could have called if you were coming over for dinner. I would’ve-” she immediately stopped talking when she saw what state Newt was in. It hit him that he hadn’t bothered to clean up, and that he’d gone on the bus like this. He groaned and sat down in a chair by the dinner table. Turning off the stove, she walked over to him and looked him up and down. 

“What happened?” Brenda’s voice was controlled, but Newt could tell that she was close to freaking out. He didn’t know how to explain so he just said the first thing that came to mind. 

“Mum had been drinking when I came home.” 

Brenda sucked in a sharp breath and started to walk out of the kitchen. 

“I’ll call Jorge. You go to the bathroom and wash up, now.” She didn’t stop walking until she was outside the house, her phone already up and dialing Jorge. It took a while for him to answer, which made Brenda stomp her foot impatiently. Finally he answered and Brenda let out a sigh of relief. 

“Hi Bren, what is it? I’ve got practice until five you know,” Jorge said in a light tone. Him just being so carefree calmed Brenda down a bit, and she took a deep breath before speaking. 

“Newt came over, and it’s bad Jorge. He’s bloody all over, saying that his mum had been drinking. I sent him to the bathroom to wash up but I need your help.” She was close to crying but Jorge just hushed her over the phone. 

“Calm down hermana, it’s okay. I’ll end the training early and leave the lockup for the janitor. Give me 10 minutes, tops.” 

“Yes, okay. I’ll wait for you on the porch.” Brenda hung up and looked back into the house. She should go inside and make sure Newt was okay, but there was something stopping her. 

When she’d first come to Jorge, not even eight years old, Newt had just been a boy on the swim-team, who for some reason spent a lot of time by the pools and with Jorge. At first they’d both been jealous of each other, because they wanted Jorge for themselves. 

_ “Leave him alone, he’s my swim-coach!” Newt yelled at her when Jorge had left them alone. _

_ “Well he’s my uncle!”  _

After some time however, they became friends, and maybe a year later Minho joined their little group. Her childhood had been with Newt, the happy kid who always was the first to jump into the water, and they had practically grown up as siblings. But soon after Newt had stopped swimming, things began to unravel. Brenda hadn’t known about Newt’s family situation until he one night stood outside Jorge’s door, close to tears. Jorge had let him stay the night, and they had talked in the guestroom. Brenda wasn’t told what had happened, but over the year she been told some basic things. She knew that Newt’s dad had left before Brenda came along, and that it had been a hard blow for his mom. The woman still hadn’t moved on, and it had just taken a turn for the worse the past few years. Brenda missed the time where everything was okay, or at least when it seemed like it was. Going inside would mean that she would know more of what had been going on behind the curtains, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to. 

Suddenly Bertha pulled up on the driveway in front of the house, making Brenda return to the present. Jorge jumped out of the car and hurried over to her. 

“Are you okay Bren?” He put his hand on her shoulder and looked her over. She nodded and gave a weak smile. 

“Yeah, just worried about Newt. He’s inside, I haven’t checked up on him yet.” Jorge nodded and gave her shoulder a squeeze. 

“I’ll go and talk to him. And come back inside, it’s getting dark,” he said with a reassuring smile. 

They went back inside and Jorge walked towards the bathroom. Brenda returned to the kitchen to finish up the dinner, and was soon done. She stood there for a while, waiting for Jorge and Newt, but when they didn’t return she grew restless. 

What were they talking about in there? Was Newt seriously hurt? Why weren’t they done yet? 

Tired of waiting, Brenda sneaked up to the bathroom door and listened. They were talking in rather hushed voices, too low to hear what was being said. She leaned closer to the door to be able to hear better. Just then the door opened and Newt stepped out, crashing into her. Before she could fall backwards Newt grabbed her arm and pulled her up to a stand. Jerking her head up she could see how surprised he looked. 

“Brenda what-” 

“I just got here I swear,” Brenda said, cutting Newt off. She glanced over his shoulder at Jorge who gave her a serious look. Newt just nodded, looking more tired now than he had just a few seconds ago. 

“Yeah well I’m going to bed, and I’m sorry about earlier.” He sighed and dragged his fingers through his messy hair. “We’ll talk more tomorrow, okay?” Brenda just nodded and Newt gave her a small smile before retreating upstairs. As soon as she heard the door to the guest room door close, Brenda turned to Jorge.  

“What happened?” 

 

***

 

_ Earlier  _

 

Newt had just cleaned away all of the blood and the shards, and now looked at himself in the mirror. He hated how much he’d begun to look like his father recently, and no doubt his mother hated it too. Instead of getting hung up on that, he focused on his eyes. He’d gotten them from his mother. She’d always had chestnut-brown hair and dark chocolate-coloured eyes, but recently it seemed like both of them started to become grey. 

A soft knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts, and he looked up to see Jorge opening the door. 

“Hi, hermano.” They stared at each other for a minute or two before Newt sighed and sat down on the edge of the bathtub. He knew what was coming now. 

“Hey… come in and close the door,” Newt said as he put his head in his hands. Jorge did as he was told and took a stand in front of Newt. 

“You really scared Brenda, you know that?” Jorge crossed his arms, and his expression was a mixture between anger and sympathy. Newt looked away, 

“I know. I’m sorry Jorge, I didn’t know what to do. You’ve said that the door’s always open and…” he cut himself off, not knowing what to say. He’d been kicked out of his own house, what should he have done?

“The door is always open here,” Jorge confirmed. “But if there is a next time something like this happens, call me first.” Newt looked back at Jorge, who put a heavy hand on his shoulder. 

“Now, what happened?”

Newt sighed again, shaking Jorge’s hand off of his shoulder. 

“Mum uh… she was drunk when I came home. I tried to talk to her but she got mad and started throwing things,” Newt said, trying to ignore how his voice cracked at the end. He felt all of the anger directed at his mother leave him, just to be replaced with an overwhelming sadness the next moment. All he wanted right now was to break down and cry, but he felt like he needed to stay strong for Jorge and himself too. Jorge was quiet for a while, and so was Newt. suddenly Jorge spoke, making Newt jump a little. 

“You should call the authorities. You can’t keep living with her.” The cold tone in his voice made Newt want to shiver, but he was too surprised to move an inch. 

“What?”

“You heard me. Your mother is dangerous, she could seriously injure you.” Jorge crossed his arms once again. Newt stood up, wanting to face him.

“She won’t, okay? I’m not going to call the police on my own mother.” 

“If you won’t, I will,”  Jorge said, trying to loom over Newt, although Newt was slightly taller. Once again his anger flared up, pushing the sadness away for now.

“And tell them what? If I don’t cooperate they won’t lift a finger, and besides I’m almost 18.” 

Jorge made Newt face the mirror, pointing to the cuts in his face.

“I think this is evidence enough, don’t you? And you’re not an adult yet hermano.” Jorge sounded as angry as Newt felt. But when he made Newt look into the mirror, it felt as if something cracked and once again the anger just ran off. 

“Jorge I can’t just… I’m the only one she’s got, I can’t turn against her.” Newt’s voice was low, and he was close to tears.

“I know Newt. But this isn’t okay, she could hurt you.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” Tears spilled over but Newt quickly wiped them away. “I can’t afford sending her to rehab, or someplace where she is taken care of, and if I left she’d hate me forever.” 

“Newt, you have to understand, this isn’t-”   
“No, you have to understand,” Newt said, cutting Jorge off. “She’s my  _ mother. _ I can’t leave her.” Both of them were silent for a long time, Newt praying that Jorge would understand. After a long time, Jorge sighed. 

“I won’t call the police.” A rush of relief flooded Newt’s mind. “But you can’t stay at her house anymore.” 

“Then where am I supposed to live?” Newt felt his breath speeding up. He wasn’t even out of high school how was he supposed to live on his own? “ I don’t have any money and-”

“Calm down.” This time, Jorge cut Newt off. “You’re going to live here from now on. And before you protest we have a spare room, we can afford to have you staying here and you can still go and check up on your mom.” Newt stared at Jorge for what felt like an eternity. Just recently he was trying to call the police on his mom and how he’s offering Newt to live there. 

“Are you serious?” 

“Why wouldn’t I be? And besides, you’ve been here so much that it feels like you live here already.” Jorge looked dead serious, leaving no room for arguments. Not knowing what to say, Newt threw himself at Jorge, hugging him tight. 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you…” His voice cracked and soon he was sobbing. Jorge just let him cry until he calmed down. Newt pulled away and wiped the tears off his cheeks, and Jorge gave him a reassuring smile. 

“I’ll get a job and help with money as soon as I can.” Jorge shook his head before answering.

“There’s no need for that yet hermano. For now, finish school, okay?” 

Newt nodded, not quite believing this was happening. 

“Let’s go and eat now, I’m starving.” 

“You do that, I… I’m not hungry. I’ll go to bed.” Jorge gave him a look, but nodded. Newt turned and opened the door, but as soon as he stepped out, he crashed into Brenda. Before she could fall backwards he grabbed her arm and hoisted her up. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights, and Newt was surprised to say the least. 

“Brenda what-” 

“I just got here I swear!” Newt was tired, and really didn’t want to deal with this right now. Instead of asking why she had been standing outside the door, he just nodded and said that he was going to bed. As he closed the door he could hear them begin to talk downstairs, but he didn’t care about that now. Instead he changed into one of the t-shirts he’d left here a few days ago, and laid down in bed. Maybe living here wouldn’t change anything, since he stayed here so often either way. And he would still go and check up on his mother, make sure she was okay and everything. But how was he going to tell her? However he said it, she would think that he was leaving her. Would that make her drink more than she already did? There had to be a way for this to go smoothly. Newt had started to drift off when his phone suddenly buzzed with a text, making him jerk awake. He looked around the room, and saw the phone shining in the pocket of his jeans. Reaching over the edge of the bed, Newt grabbed the jeans and pulled out the phone. The bright light made his eyes sting but after a while he got used to it. When he finally could read the message, he saw that it was from Thomas and his stomach did a small flip. Why would Thomas text him this late? He opened it up and without knowing it, a small smile graced his lips. 

_ Hi it’s Thomas. Just wanted to check in on you, so… you ok? _

Newt typed out a quick reply before closing down the phone and going back to sleep. Whatever more problems he had, he would deal with tomorrow. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a lot happened there... Hope you liked it (despite the angst), and that this doesn't scare you away ^^'.   
> Also, both of us writing this starts school this week, which in the future might mean that we can't make it until Tuesday every week. We will do our best, but we can't make any promises.   
> As always comments are highly appreciated, and we'll (hopefully) see you next Tuesday!<3


	6. chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, we're both extremely sorry for the long wait, but both of us started school a few weeks ago and it was a lot of work from the beginning which meant that we haven't had much time to write. There has also been problems with writers blocks, which also slowed us down a lot. Again we're extremely sorry, but we hope that we can make it up to you guys with this extra long chapter! Enjoy!
> 
> No TW in this chapter.

Thomas wakes up around eight thirty that Saturday morning, and the first thing he sees is his best friend trying to sneak his phone away from his nightstand. He doesn’t make a sound and closes his eyes again and carefully untangles his hand from the sheets of his bed, and just when Teresa has her hand on his phone to pick it up from its place, Thomas reaches out and grabs her wrist. The high-pitched scream she makes when his hand takes a hold of her wrist makes him laugh. 

“Oh my god you fucker” Teresa breathes when she stops hyperventilating. “You scared the crap out of me Thomas James Murphy!”

“Hey, you're the one trying to steal my phone Teresa Ivory Agnes, so I think that you deserve a jump-scare.” The image of Teresa's terrified face still made Thomas laugh on the inside. Then he realized what she actually were doing in the first place. 

“Why would you need my phone anyway?” Teresa just smiled smugly.

“Because I know you too well, I actually know that you sent Newt a text last night just to check up on him after we talked about him.” Thomas shouldn’t be surprised, but he really was. Was he that obvious last night? The answer to that is probably yes. “And I needed to check if you’ve got a reply from him, that’s all, I swear” Thomas’s mind took a shortcut straight to the part about Newt texting him, so instead of answering her he just picked up the phone from his nightstand. And just as Teresa predicted there was a text from Newt waiting for him from late last night. 

_ Hey, yeah I’m okay. Thanks for asking I guess? _

The text made Thomas feel a lot better, the concern eased a lot and it felt like he finally could breathe again. 

“So what did he say?” Teresa’s comment made Thomas jump slightly because, right she was still here. 

“Oh, he just said that he’s okay, nothing special.” Thomas knew that Teresa didn’t believe the last part, not that he really meant it either, but that’s not the point. Teresa just smiled and let herself fall back against the mattress on the floor. 

Thomas’s parents had woken up by Teresas scream so his mom came in just seconds later asking them if  everything was okay. Thomas and Teresa just rolled out of bed laughing after his mom left because, honestly, the whole thing was hilarious. They went downstairs and ate breakfast together with Thomas’s parents and finished it up pretty quick. 

Teresa left the Murphys an hour later to get home and “Finish that long shucking essay that Janson gave us” and Thomas was now left with a messy room and lots of loose long raven strands of hair all over his carpet, as usual. He quickly cleaned his room and sat down on his bed, glancing over at the clock. 10:07. He picked up his phone and read Newt’s text once more, before pressing the call-button. Thomas panicked when he heard the dials and was almost out of breath when Newt picked up.

“Uh, hello?” Newt’s accent was thicker than usual and that made Thomas wake up from his daze of shock. 

“Eh, hi Newt.” there was a long pause before Thomas realized that he was the one calling and he started talking again. 

“I just, uh, I wanted to check up on you today? To see if you’re okay...?”

“Yeah, I am... I already told you that, didn’t you get the text?”

Thomas stops fidgeting with the hem of his shirt when Newt asks him that, because what was he supposed to answer? Yes I did and now I’m just seeking attention? Or no, I didn’t because I send texts and doesn’t read the replies? Both options were really bad so he decided against both of them. 

“Um yeah I did, but eh...” he was already lost and couldn’t think of anything to say. Thomas thought about just ending the call and blame the phone later, but that would be rude. Just then he got an idea.

“I just wanted to ask you if you want to practise today? Like, you don’t have to but I thought that I could ask…” the line got quiet again as Newt thought about the offer. After a minute or so Newt cleared his throat and started speaking. 

“Yeah, we could do that. I just have to send Minho a text, he probably wants to come with us.”

“Okay, yeah. I’ll see the two of you by the pools in one hour then?”

“Yes, we’ll be there.”

“Okay, bye then.”

“Yeah, bye”

Thomas ended the call quickly and threw himself onto the bed. Why did he call him? He seriously needed to think things through before he do them from now on. After contemplating life for a while Thomas stood up again and went downstairs to grab his stuff.  As he closed the front door he stopped for a while and just stood there. Then he just shook his head and started walking towards the pools, mentally ready for the training-session with Newt. 

  
  


***

 

When Newt woke up, it was to the sound of his phone ringing. Confused and irritated he sat up and looked around, searching for the device. Newt quickly spotted it on the nightstand and leaned over to grab it, falling back down on the bed as he did so. He rubbed at his eyes, trying to get rid of the sleepiness before looking who it was calling him, and when he saw the caller-id he was suddenly wide awake, scrambling to sit up.

Thomas was calling him. Why would he call when he texted just last night? Combing a hand through his hair, he hit the answer button. 

“Uh, hello?” Newt mentally cursed himself for sounding so tired, but he really wasn’t a morning person.

“Eh, hi Newt.” Thomas sounded more awake than he did, for sure. Newt waited for what Thomas would say next. Or was Newt supposed to say something? He was just about to speak when Thomas beat him to it. 

“I just, uh, I wanted to check up on you today? To see if you’re okay..?”

“Yeah, I am…” Newt remembered about last night and frowned. “I already told you that, didn’t you get the text?” 

“Um yeah I did, but eh… I just wanted to ask you if you want to practise today? Like, you don’t have to but I thought that I could ask…” 

Newt’s shoulders stiffened at that. They had been practicing this Thursday, and gotten a lot deeper, but that night Newt’s skin had crawled for hours. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to try that again so soon, and it would look stupid if he couldn’t get as far as Thursday. After all he was meant to progress, not have stepbacks. But even though the crawling had been awful, the time he actually spent calmly in the water was nice. It was a good distraction and before he quit, swimming had been a good distraction too. Considering what had happened yesterday he might need to get his mind off things. 

“Yeah, we could do that. I just have to send Minho a text, he probably wants to come with us.”

“Okay, yeah. I’ll see the two of you by the pools in one hour then?”

“Yes, we’ll be there.”

“Okay, bye then.”

“Yeah, bye”

Newt heard Thomas hang up, and instantly flopped back down on the bed. Sending a quick text to Minho, he forced himself to get out from under the warm covers. Even if he wanted to go to the pools, he really hated getting out of bed. 

When he walked into the kitchen he saw Jorge standing by the stove and Brenda leaning on the kitchen island. 

“Morning guys,” he said, stifling a yawn. When he sat down next to Brenda, she gave him a sideway glance. 

“Morning…” Brenda kept glancing over, but he was too tired to deal with whatever it was she was wondering about right now. He reached over to the coffee-machine on the island, and poured a cup to both him and Brenda. They kept quiet while Jorge made the food, neither of them really being any early birds. 

Sadly, Jorge was, and as soon as he sat down to eat, he started talking. 

“So kids, yesterday was a rough day,” Jorge said, looking at Newt who in turn stared down at his plate. He really didn’t want to think about what had happened, but he couldn’t just ignore it either. Jorge probably knew what Newt was thinking, because how else would he know what to say next?

“Today will be a breather. We won’t do anything about this right now, but we have to take care of it tomorrow since it’s still a pressing matter.” 

The way Jorge talked, laying it out as a sort of strategy reminded Newt about all the talks they’d had as coach and swimmer. He’d planned what he wanted to say on beforehand, leaving no room for argument, and Newt was left to jump into the water and do as he was told. With both him and Brenda being used to this, they just gave a short nod before starting to eat. It was quiet for a few minutes, before Jorge spoke again. 

“I’ll go outside and work a bit today, what are you kids planning?” His voice had returned to its normal, cheery tone and Newt nodded.

“Yeah, Thomas asked if I wanted to practice today and we’re meeting up around 11.” Instantly Brenda turned to him. 

“Was it him you talked to on the phone earlier?”  Newt slowly nodded, wondering why she reacted at that. 

“Yeah, he was free today so he called.” When he said that, Brenda gave him a thoughtful look. 

“I’m going with you,” she stated firmly. Newt stopped chewing and looked over at her. He was going to say no until he saw the look on her face. Brenda always tried to act stoic, but if something was bothering her it would show rather easily, and right now she looked worried. What Jorge had said last night came back to him, making him feel awful.  _ You really scared Brenda.  _ Newt swallowed around the lump that had started to grow in his throat and nodded.  

“Yeah ok. Minho said that he was going to pick me up, but I’ll just text him and say that the two of us get Bertha instead.” 

They finished breakfast and Newt went upstairs to get his things before they left the house. Brenda was already clothed and had a bag of swim-gear in the hallway so she was ready to go. That left Brenda and Jorge alone in the kitchen in an uncomfortable silence. They cleaned up and when Jorge washed the dishes and Brenda put the things back in the fridge he turned around and looked over at her with concerned eyes. 

“I know that you’re worried hermana, but you have to let him do things on his own.” Benda just looked down at the floor and closed the fridge. She went over to Jorge and sat down on the countertop beside him. 

“I just want to make sure that he’s okay after all that have happened.” Sure, she trusted Minho, and to some extent Thomas, but Thomas was still new and she wasn’t sure if he’d stay around once he’d helped Newt. Maybe the guy thought of this as some sort of service and would just go on afterwards. Newt already seemed to like him, and she knew that it would be a hard blow if Thomas left.

“I haven’t told you yet, but he’s going to stay here from now on.” 

Brenda nodded. Just when she was about to speak she heard Newt come down the stairs and quickly jumped off the counter and started to walk towards the hallway. She threw Jorge a last look over her shoulder and smiled before stepping out of the kitchen and going to the garage. 

 

***

 

They arrived at the pools a bit after 11, where both Thomas and Minho stood waiting. They were talking a bit to each other, but when Berta pulled up in front of them they both looked over at the car. Newt got out of the passenger seat, and locked eyes with Thomas. He gave Newt a broad grin, to which Newt replied with a small smile. 

“Hi guys,” Minho said once they got closer. “Took you both long enough.” Brenda gave the asian boy a light shove while sighing, and Newt’s smile grew. 

“You know neither of us enjoy mornings,” Brenda replied. She and Minho walked over to the door, unlocking it and stepping inside. Newt was going to follow when Thomas leaned closer and whispered. 

“Thank god for coffee, huh?” Newt jumped slightly, but laughed, feeling his face heat up. He turned to Thomas and realised how close the boy actually was. If he wanted to he could count all the moles covering the other boys face. He found himself starting to count them, but was dragged out of it when Minho called for them. Drawing back he hurried inside, glancing back at Thomas who looked rather red. It was warm, it was probably the sun heating up his face, Newt thought. It had to be. 

 

When they got to the locker room Minho was practically done, already walking towards the showers. He’d wanted to get some training in for himself, and even though he hadn’t said it, it was easier to help Newt if he freaked out. Newt sighed internally, and walked over to a locker. Thomas was still struggling with pulling off his shoes. Newt in the meantime started to get changed, putting on the black swimshorts he still hadn’t returned to Minho. He started to pull his shirt over his head when he heard a loud crash. Turning around he saw Thomas on the floor, scrambling to get up.

“How did you end up on the bloody floor?” Newt wasn’t sure if he should walk over and help Thomas or not, but before he could make up his mind, Thomas was standing again. Once upright he laughed and scratched his neck.

“I uh, I kind of stumbled over my own feet I guess.” Newt laughed too, not sure if he should say anything. Thomas had turned red again, no doubt feeling rather embarrassed. He  noticed Thomas looking him up and down, but not in a bad way. Before his cheeks turned red, Newt turned around and walked towards the door leading out to the pools.

“I-I’m going out to the others, hurry up will you,” Newt stammered, feeling like Thomas was still watching him. There was a pause before Thomas answered with a cracked voice. 

“Okay.” 

Newt wanted to throw himself in the deep end. Why was he reacting this way to Thomas voice of all things. His whole body felt warm and he wanted nothing more than to continue counting Thomas moles like he had done earlier. Why was he like this now? Deciding to not think further about it, he looked over to where Minho was swimming with Brenda in the water. It seemed as if they were competing with each other. Newt could imagine the smile on both of their faces, either because they were in the lead or because they soon were going to be. He walked up to the pool-edge and sat down, slowly putting his feet in the water. At first it felt like small spiders were crawling up his legs, but it quickly faded away. Once again he looked over at Minho and Brenda, but they were too invested in their competition to notice that Newt had gotten there. He missed competing with the two of them, it used to be one of his everyday things to do. To lose such a big part of him made him feel out of place. It was unfair that they could just throw themselves into the water and swim as much as they wanted to, when he couldn’t even submerge completely. He wanted to hate the two of them for still being able to do the thing he loved, but he knew that he couldn’t. It wasn’t their fault that this had happened, Newt should have been more careful, locked the doors or done  _ something _ . He tore his eyes away from Minho and Brenda and looked down into the water in front of him. 

 

That night he’d been alone. Newt should have gone to check what that sound had been, but he’d just ignored it. Then he had been gripped from behind, pushed down and the hands had held him under. He shuddered and tried to suppress the memory. Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulders, pulling him out of his thoughts and making him jump. 

 

***

 

When Thomas came out of the locker rooms he saw Newt sitting on the edge of the pool with his feet and legs in the water. The sight made Thomas smile, because he could clearly see the progress that they’d made over the past weeks. A month ago Newt wouldn’t even have touched it at all, but now he was slowly moving his feet through the cold water. Yet the smile soon faltered. Thomas couldn’t see Newt’s face, but could still see that something was out of place. It wasn’t the water bothering him anymore, so the sight confused Thomas a bit. When he finally could take his eyes of the blonde boy he looked over the whole pool area. There were no one else there but the four of them because of the regular “Saturday morning cleaning” of the pools, so the area was closed for the public for the moment. He saw Minho and Brenda panting at one of the edges of the pool, looking like they just swam quite the distance. Thomas then looked back at Newt and realized why the blonde boy was giving off that weird feeling. It made Thomas even more motivated to help Newt to get that part of his life back. He started walking towards the boy, and when he got closer he slowed down to closely watch his golden hair, before carefully placing a hand on Newt’s shoulder. Newt jumped at the touch, quickly moving away and Thomas pulled back his hand looking down at his feet. He couldn’t stop himself for feeling a little defeated from the reaction he got, but he decided that it shouldn't determine the way practise turned out. He looked up and smiled at Newt.  

“Uh… are you ready to start?” Newt nodded and stood up.

“Yeah. We start at the shallow end, right?” His voice wavered slightly but Thomas chose to ignore that for now. If he brought it up it might get worse.

“Yup. Do you want the mattress this time,” Thomas asked. Last time Newt said he hadn’t needed it, but ended up asking Minho to grab it when the water reached his ribs. Newt just nodded and Thomas went to the supply closet to get one. When he came back Newt was once again sitting at the edge of the pool, now on the shallow end. Thomas put the mattress in the water and jumped in himself, turning back to Newt. The Brit was looking at Minho and Brenda, who had started to swim again, and he seemed tense. It was almost painful to see the jealousy and sadness in those dark brown eyes, and Thomas couldn’t stand it.

“Hey, Newt,” Thomas said, waving his hand in front of his face. He didn’t want to touch Newt after how he reacted before. “Are you gonna jump in or what?”

Newt snapped his attention back to Thomas, and nodded slowly. 

“Could you uh… take my…” At first Thomas didn’t understand what Newt meant, but then he saw that the blonde boy had reached his hand out towards Thomas. He stared at it at first, not sure what to do. “You don’t have to, it’s just t-that I was thinking earlier and I’m not sure if just jumping in without something to hold onto would be a good idea-” Newt’s rambling was cut off by Thomas taking Newt’s hand in his. 

“Hey, it’s fine. Just do what you need to to be comfortable.” Newt gave a small smile as a thank, before sliding off of the edge and jumping into the water. Thomas might have held onto Newt’s hand a bit longer than he had to, but he didn’t want Newt to lose balance. Eventually he let go, and they started to walk around for a bit. They had gotten some kind of routine after the practises they’d had, starting off with moving around, trying to get used to the water. Once Newt was okay with it they moved further out, and they repeated it until Newt said he wanted to get out of the water. 

After half an hour, the boys were standing with water up to their bellies, which was a lot faster than last time. Thomas was impressed, because not only had it gone faster, Newt was appearing rather calm, if you overlooked how he still kept his arms above the water and his tense shoulders.  ****

Thomas looked up at Newt’s face for a while, the boy himself was looking down on his feet through the cold water. He was so focused on the water and to keep his hands over it, that he didn’t see the look on Thomas’s face. 

He studied Newt’s hands for a moment, which were hovering right above the water surface. They were pale and shaking slightly from the cold. Thomas got an urge to take them in his own bigger, warmer hands to protect Newt’s from the water. Without thinking he stretched out his arms towards Newt, who looked up from his feet and moved his concentration to Thomas’s hands. He looked up at Thomas’s face as if he wanted to make sure that they were meant for him. Thomas just smiled and got a shy one in response as the blonde boy took the offered hands. 

Something changed in Newt, because when he took Thomas’s hands, his expression turned from focused to determined and his shoulders relaxed slightly. He then looked down at their hands again and started lowering them into the water. Thomas was a bit surprised when his hands touched the surface ,and then after a second or two, started sinking together with Newt’s. Newt hadn’t put his hands in the water at all during all these weeks of practising so this was a huge step forward. After a minute of slowly lowering their hands further down, they were almost completely underwater. 

Thomas glanced over Newt’s shoulder to where Minho and Brenda were standing, seeing a huge smirk on Minho’s face and a small frown on Brenda’s. Why were they reacting so differently? Why were they reacting at all anyway, Thomas was just helping Newt get over his fear of water. He looked back at Newt, who was squeezing his eyes shut. The tense set of his shoulders was back, and it sounded like his breathing was picking up pace. Quickly Thomas gave Newt's hands a gentle squeeze, and started to talk.

“Hey Newt, are you okay? We can get out of the water if you-”   
“No,” Newt growled, opening his eyes to glare at Thomas. “I won’t get out of the water yet, okay?” Once again, Newt closed his eyes, before taking a calming breath. 

“I just… I want to stay in the pool for a while longer.” Newt's voice had dropped the harsh tone, and now he sounded rather apologetic. It also sounded like there was more to this than just some stupid jealousy, but Thomas decided not to ask about it right now. 

“Okay.” Thomas tried to take the worry out of his voice, although he didn’t do a good job. “It’s fine, we’ll stand here for a bit.” Newt nodded, and Thomas gave Newt’s hands another light squeeze. 

 

After maybe 10 minutes, Newt opened his eyes again, looking much calmer now than before. Minho and Brenda had stopped staring at them a while ago, and were now swimming around in the deep end, which made Thomas relieved. It was slightly unnerving when Newts best friends looked at him like they couldn’t decide whether to hug him or slap him. 

“Let’s go a bit deeper,” Thomas suggested. They were still standing with the water reaching their bellies, and Thomas legs had started to itch a bit. He thought back to the first practise he and Newt had had, and how his legs were aching to move after standing still for half an hour.

“Yeah okay.” 

Thomas was about to let go of Newt’s hands, when he suddenly tightened his hold. Slightly surprised, Thomas looked up at Newt, seeing the other boy bite at his lower lip and growing red. 

“Can I hold onto your hand?”

It took a while for Thomas to respond, and Newt was about to take his hand away when Thomas grabbed it back.

“Yes you can,” Thomas said maybe a bit too fiercely. Newt gave a small smile and let Thomas drag him along, slowly going deeper and deeper. 

 

In the end of the practice, Newt had made a lot of progress. They had gotten as deep as last time, to the ribs, but Newt had his hands under the water this time. He hadn’t used the mattress either, and Thomas wanted to think that it was because Newt had Thomas to hold onto. They’d also tried to quickly go down so that the water reached their neck, but Newt had shot out of the water, breathing hard, and they decided to go slower next time.  

Now all of them were standing outside the pools, talking a bit and deciding what they would do next.

“I was planning on studying a bit today, do you guys want to join,” Thomas asked. He felt slightly guilty for shooing Teresa away this morning and now inviting the others instead, but he could always tell her to come over as well. Newt nodded, giving a smile.

“Sounds better than doing the history reading alone, right Minho?” At that Minho smirked and crossed his arms. 

“Actually I’ve already done my homework, and I need to get home anyway.” 

Brenda was about to say something when Minho gave her ribs a nudge. She glared at him, but he just gave her a pointed look until she nodded.

“Yeah, I’m done too,” Brenda said, glaring a bit more in Minho’s direction. “And Jorge said something about needing help with cleaning the attic.” 

Newt frowned at that.

“Maybe I should go back with you and help?” Thomas perked up at that. Why would Newt help Jorge clean his attic? He thought back to the conversation he’d had with Teresa the night before. She said that she had heard Minho and Brenda talk about Newt staying with Jorge. Did he live there? Why? Jorge wasn’t related to Newt that Thomas knew so it all seemed a bit strange.

“No it’s okay, you’ve got homework to do,” Brenda said, cutting Thomas thoughts off.

“Okay, but-” 

“Seriously Newt, it’s fine.” Brenda turned to Minho, smiling. “You, however, don’t need to study so you can help me with the attic.” 

“What?” Minho looked horrified. 

“You heard me, come on pretty boy.” Brenda grabbed Minho’s arm and started to drag him towards Bertha. Minho protested, saying that he couldn’t leave his car in the middle of a parking lot, to which Brenda just rolled her eyes.

“We’ll see you guys later, yeah?” 

“Yeah, sure…” Newt mumbled, looking a bit lost. 

 

Once Brenda had gotten Minho into the car and drove off, Thomas and Newt were left alone on the parking lot. Thomas was happy that he lived so near the pools, since Brenda and Minho in their hurry had forgotten that neither Thomas or Newt had a car. 

“So…” Thomas started. “My place then?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, hope you liked it! Please tell us what you think in the comments or on our tumblr (which has been extremely inactive sorry about that). Also we wont be able to update on Tuesday (for obvious reasons) but we wont let this fic die yet, just bare with us!  
> Thanks for reading and we'll see you in the near future!<3


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! First off, we’re extremely sorry for the long wait! We know it’s been over two months, but school turned out to be a lot busier than initially thought. Anyway, we decided to make up for this with a longer chapter, and well… it turned out to be a really long chapter. Hope you enjoy!  
> No TW in this chapter.

_ “So…” Thomas started. “My place then?” _

 

Newt had watched Minho and Brenda drive off, but Thomas voice made him look over.

“Yeah. Which way was it now again?” Newt tried to remember how they’d walked that night when Thomas offered him to stay at his house, but it was a few weeks ago and it had been very late. 

“It’s this way,” Thomas answered and started walking in the opposite direction from where Minho and Brenda had gone. 

Neither of them said anything, yet Newt didn’t mind. He thought back to how the practise had gone and winced. Thomas had somehow convinced him to try and go down to the neck, which wasn’t the best idea. Sure, Newt did try, but as soon as his chest was under water it felt as if his lungs shrinked and he almost panicked. He shuddered when he thought of it, and again, it felt like spiders crawled all over him. Of course Thomas noticed and he turned to look at Newt while they walked.

“Are you okay Newt?” 

Newt just smiled slightly, not wanting to worry him. 

“Yeah.”

“Okay…” Newt could see that Thomas didn’t quite believe him, but he wasn’t going to explain it any further. They go on in silence for some time, before Thomas decides to break it again.

“Hey, can I ask you something?”

Newt is tempted to answer ‘you just did’, and cut the conversation short, but he doesn’t. 

“Sure.” His voice is a little shaky, but it seems like Thomas doesn’t notice. Newt is a bit worried about what Thomas will ask, because what would he do if it’s something he doesn’t want to answer? It would be a bit rude to not answer, especially since Thomas is inviting him to study at his place. But he’s never been worried about being rude before, why is this different?

“What’s your Hogwarts house?” 

Newt almost stopped walking. What kind of question was that? Thomas was looking at him expectantly so Newt shook off the surprise enough to answer.

“I uh… I don’t know. Why do you ask?” 

“Well what house a person is in tells a lot about them. For example, I am in Gryffindor!” Thomas smirks and puffs his chest, making Newt laugh. 

“How do you know for sure that you’re in Gryffindor though?” 

“Uh, pottermore of course. If we’ve got time later maybe we can check what house you’re in.”

“Yeah sure.” 

They kept on talking about whatever they came to think about after that, mostly about movies and books. Newt was shocked to hear that Thomas hadn’t read nor seen The Perks of Being a Wallflower, while Thomas almost starts yelling at him for not having seen the whole Star Wars series. When they arrived at Thomas place the conversation had died down, but Newt felt contempt with the silent company. Thomas unlocked the door and let Newt walk in before following and closing it again.

“Do you want to make some lunch before we start studying,” Thomas asked while shrugging off his jacket. “My parents will be home later for dinner so until then we’re alone.” He finished off with a grin, making Newt blush. He cleared his throat and nodded.

“Sounds good, it’s lunch-hour now anyways,” Newt mumbled. He had just taken off his jacket when Thomas grabbed his hand and pulled him along into the kitchen. Newt hated the blush that rose on his cheeks.

“Then I’m going to make some mac and cheese and you can sit there.” Thomas pointed towards the kitchen island just before turning and starting to get out what he needed. 

“Are you sure you don’t want any help?” Newt was still flustered but tried to will it away. Why was he blushing so much anyway, it was just Thomas. He had known Thomas for what, a couple of weeks? It felt like it should be longer, because for some odd reason it was so easy to trust him. Newt would’ve never agreed to try and get back to swimming again if anyone else had offered to help, and many had. But it was something with the way he looked at Newt, not only with that spark of curiosity that had been there from the very start, but something else as well. He just couldn’t put his finger on it. 

Thomas voice brought him back from his thoughts before he could think more about that though. 

“Nah, it’s fine. Just sit down for now, I got this.” Newt sighed but went over to one of the chairs by the kitchen island and sat down as he was told. He watched as Thomas dug through the cupboards to get the ingredients and went over to the stove. As Newt continued to watch it became more apparent that Thomas didn’t have much experience with cooking. Everything he did seemed very clumsy and hesitant. 

“Seriously though, I want to help,” Newt said after Thomas poured in the macaroni into the boiling water. Not only had the other boy managed to spill quite a lot, he’d also made the water splash up and hit his hand, resulting in a small yelp. It was now very clear that Thomas couldn’t cook at all, and Newt wanted to step in before Thomas seriously hurt himself.

“I said it’s fine,” Thomas said and turned to Newt. “I’ve done mac and cheese like, a billion times. And besides, it’s-” A loud hissing cut him off, and a glance over Thomas shoulder told Newt that the macaroni had already boiled over. Seriously how did the guy do it? While Thomas yelped again, Newt hurried off his chair and walked over to Thomas. He gently pushed the boy aside and pulled the pot off the stove, making the boiling stop. 

“I’m taking over wether you like it or not,” Newt said, crossing his arms over his chest. At Thomas dumbstruck expression, Newt realised that he’d been rather rude. “Uh… I mean, you can help but you’re not… really good at- at cooking. So yeah,” he managed to stutter out. Thomas expression turns sour and Newt mentally gulps.

“You come into my house!” He begins, putting his hand on his chest. “And you have th- the-” whatever Thomas was going to say is cut off as he starts to laugh. “Your face!” is all he manages to gasp out before he bends over, laughing harder. Newt can feel his face heating up as Thomas continues to laugh. Minho pulled all these sorts of jokes with him when they hung out, so why hadn’t he realised it was a joke with Thomas, instead of letting his stomach drop to the floor? He turned back to the stove, trying to hide the blush while simultaneously trying to will it away.

“Yeah, yeah…” Newt huffed. A smirk tugged on his lips as he heard Thomas laughter die down. “At least I can make mac and cheese without nearly starting a fire.” 

Instantly Thomas stood up straight and threw his arms out. 

“Hey! It wasn’t even close to a fire,” he exclaimed.  

“So you aren’t denying that you can’t cook?” Newt’s smiled widened when he heard Thomas letting out a whine. 

“Okay, I suck at cooking,” he admitted. “But it isn’t my fault!” Newt only turned around to give Thomas a deadpan stare. “Seriously, my mum never lets me near the kitchen, and she always puts away left-overs that I can just microwave.” Thomas crossed his arms and pouted, looking like a sad puppy. Newt only laughed and turned back to the stove. 

“Well I’ll take over now either way. Get me some paper to clean up the water with, will you?” Newt pointed in the general direction he thought the paper-roll would be. Thomas only sighed but went to fetch the paper. 

 

After Newt took over, the cooking went smoothly. Well, except when Thomas dropped the pan with the melted cheese, getting the front of his shirt covered in it. He yelled, but put the pan down before freaking out completely. Before Newt could react, Thomas threw his shirt off and was patting his chest with his hands. Grabbing Thomas hand, Newt pulled him towards the sink, drenched a towel in cold water and started to pat Thomas chest as well. Once the hysteria had passed and Thomas had calmed down, Newt realised that he was stroking the other boys naked chest with a wet towel. Thomas was really well built, and his chest was not an exception. His abs were defined and a warm bronze color lingered on his skin from the sunny summer days that just passed. With a blush painting his cheeks deep red, Newt silently cursed Thomas clumsiness and his own pale skin. After a few more pats with the towel, Newt stopped but kept the cloth pressed against Thomas red chest. 

“You okay,” he croaked out. He quickly cleared his throat before Thomas answered.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” Absentmindedly Thomas put his hand over Newt’s, keeping it in place. “My t-shirt was rather thick and I got it off quickly, so yeah.” Thomas still seemed a bit dazed though, so Newt decided to finish the rest by himself. 

“Hey, go and get a new shirt, I’ll clean this up.” He pulled his hand back, making sure Thomas kept the towel on his chest before sending him off to grab a shirt. Once Thomas is out of sight Newt puts his head in his hands, now forcing his blush down. 

Apparently, being in the pool holding onto Thomas wasn’t at all like being up-close and personal with his chest, even during these circumstances. He couldn’t help but to notice how moles covered his whole abdomen and how, beneath the smell of hot cheese, he could also smell Thomas. It made his head spin slightly, and made a new blush creep up his neck. Before turning back to the stove Newt heaves a sigh and drags his hands down his face. 

When Thomas got back, Newt had made more sauce and but it all in the oven.

“Took you long enough, shuckface,” Newt smirks.

 

Soon they were sitting across from each other at the table, talking about this and that. They had been quiet for some time now though, but suddenly Thomas sighed. Newt looked up to see that Thomas had sunken down in his seat with the fork still in his mouth. 

“What are you doing?” Thomas sighs again.

“This is really good,” Thomas practically sings. “It’s just mac and cheese, but it’s so good! How did you learn to cook this well?”

Newt looks down at his plate for a while. He’s flattered by the compliment but the question put a weight on his shoulders.

“I uh… at home it’s mostly me making the food so… yeah.” Thomas must notice that he touched a nerve, because he goes dead-silent. Neither of them say anything for a long while, letting the silence stretch on until it feels like it will last forever. Finally Thomas speaks, but it’s not some lighthearted joke that Newt had hoped. 

“I’m sorry Newt, I didn’t mean to make you upset.” His voice is small, like he’s afraid that if he speaks any louder he might break something. Newt mentally slaps himself because  _ way to make things awkward, great job! _ Instead of letting his mind run, Newt takes a deep breath, looks up at Thomas and gives a small smile. 

“No need to bloody apologise, you didn’t do anything.” He stood up and grabbed his plate. “Should we get on with studying?” Thomas looks a bit taken aback but quickly stands up as well, and starts walking over to the sink. 

“Yeah sure man!” Before continuing, Thomas clears his throat. “I’ve got everything upstairs, so let’s go.” When Newt has put his plate by the sink, Thomas grabs his wrist and pulls him towards the stairs. 

“Shouldn’t we clean this up?” Newt glances back at the pot and pan they used, next to the dirty plates. He winces a bit and remembers that this isn’t his house. 

“We’ll take it later,” Thomas says and winks at him. Newt doesn’t even try to fight the blush this time.

 

***

 

While dragging Newt up the stairs, Thomas feels like stopping and apologise again about the cooking thing. Newt had brushed it off as nothing, but when Thomas had said it, Newt had just looked so sad. He knew though, that Newt wouldn’t tell him anything if he asked right now, and it might not be a good idea to bring it up and make Newt upset, so Thomas screwed his mouth shut and kept walking up the stairs.  _ Another time, _ he told himself.  _ I’ll ask another time. _

They finally sat down on the floor in Thomas’ room, ready to start studying. Thomas reached for his bag and picked up the books and notes from it. He spread them out in front of them and grabbed his headphones, plugged them in in his phone and offered one to Newt.    
“I have a good taste in music, I promise” Newt smiled at the comment and took the offered headphone.    
“We’ll see” Thomas huffed and tried to hide the grin on his face by looking for the right page in the history book. When he found it he pulled up the notes and they started studying. He felt a little vulnerable when Newt listened to his music, because it was kind of a big deal to him. Thomas had been adding songs to the list that included artists like Fall Out Boy, Blink-182, Paramore and Green Day for years now and was really content with the outcome, but started doubting it for the first time when Newt listened. He watched the boy beside him as he turned pages and hummed along, searching for some kind of reaction. Drifting off, Thomas started to point out Newt’s features to himself. The blonde hair almost looked golden in the afternoon sun, his eyes was still so deep brown and some tiny freckles was spread out over the boy’s nose and a few on his cheek. 

“I have to say, this is actually not as bad as I predicted it to be.” Thomas went totally rigid as Newt spoke. What was he talking about? How long had he watched the boy? He let out a confused noise. 

“The music, it’s pretty good.” Thomas let out a small sigh and Newt giggled.   
“Aha, I’m glad that you like it.” He was really happy that Newt liked it, and smiled as he looked down at the books again.    
  


They went on with sitting on the floor, discussing, studying history and Thomas stealing glances at the boy beside him for more than an hour. After a while Thomas noticed how Newt repeatedly changed his position with a frown on his face.    
“Do you want to sit in my bed instead? Its way more comfortable than the floor.” 

“Yeah, if that’s okay with you?” 

“Yes, of course. Let me just get the stuff.” 

The decide to lay down on the bed to make it even more comfortable, which made their legs brush against each other when they move every tiny bit, and Thomas found himself liking it. Their concentration disappeared somewhere along their way from the floor to the bed and they were now chatting about everything they could think about. Thomas pulled up his laptop after a while to find out what Hogwarts house Newt were in, and it turned out that he was a Hufflepuff. When they later realized that they’d practically talked away their study-time they decided to get back into it. 

Thomas picks up the history book and tries to read the extremely tiny, long paragraph beside a photo when Newt opens the book a little wider and starts reading the same paragraph.    
“Is this really what they mean? I don’t get what they’re trying to say.” Newt points at a sentence in the middle of the section. They both turn their heads at the same time and startle as they realize how close they are. Thomas had moved closer to Newt when he picked up the book and Newt had closed the space between them when he pointed at the sentence. Their sides were now pressed together and their noses were not too far from touching. Thomas remember that Newt asked a question earlier, but he can’t remember what it was, too surprised but the closeness to think straight.

“Huh?” 

“What do they mean?” Newt almost whispers the question to Thomas this time.    
“I think that they…” Thomas starts to explain, but loses the words when he glances down from Newt’s eyes to his lips. “Uh…” He looks up at Newt’s deep brown eyes again, just to see that the other boy is looking at his lips too. With his mind all fuzzy his eyes flutters his close. Thomas feels Newt closing his eyes as well, they’re close enough for Newt’s lashes to grace his cheek, and how he’s starting to close distance between them further. Their noses were now touching and he could feel the warmth of Newts lips right in front of his own. Thomas is about to lean in the few final centimeters, and they’re so close, when… 

“TOM HONEY, I’M HOME”

 

***

 

Startled by the sudden noise, Thomas quickly opened his eyes and backed away from Newt’s face. The silence that earlier had been comfortable was now heavy and almost thick enough to cut through. He doesn’t know what to say to the blonde boy in front of him, so he stays silent for a second or two. Replaying the moments that just happened in his mind, he realizes that he was just about to kiss Newt. Really  _ kiss him.  _ Then without thinking about it, he starts to laugh a little in a pathetic attempt to lighten up the mood. That didn’t work as well as he thought it would, because just after he started laughing Newt abruptly sat up in the bed, his face burning red. 

“I, uh, should get going.” Thomas sat up as well when Newt spoke in a quiet voice. He reached out and laid a hand on Newt’s shoulder and was just about to speak when Newt shrugged it off and stood up. He walked away a bit and pulled out his phone, frowning down at it. 

“Jorge texted, he wants me to get home.” His voice broke at the end, but he tried to cover it up with a cough. Thomas perked up at that, not only the voice-break but that Jorge had texted him. Why not Newt’s mom? Earlier by the pools, Brenda and Newt had talked about it, but after they got home Thomas hadn’t thought more about it. Before he could think about it further, Newt rushed to the door and went out in the corridor. Thomas jumped off the bed and hurried after him.

“Newt, wait!” Instead of stopping, Newt sped up, practically sprinting down the stairs. He was about to slam into the door when Thomas mom appeared from around the corner. 

“Oh, hi Newt,” she chirped. “I didn’t know you were coming over! Although, Thomas did mention that he was going to meet you by the pools. How did that go by the way? Did you beat him in a race?” From where Thomas stood he could see how his mother winked at Newt, and if Newt hadn’t looked like a frightened animal he might’ve groaned. 

“Hello mrs. Murphy. It uh… it went well.” Newt cleared his throat, glancing up at Thomas, but he quickly looked away again. “But I have to go now though. They need my help with… with cleaning the attic at home so yeah.” Newt moved towards the door, but Catherine stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Please call me Catherine, dear.” Thomas can, from his little hiding-spot in the staircase, see how his mom’s expression turns from excited to tender while she’s watching the blonde looking up from his feet to her face. “And please stay for dinner, it won’t take long. I’m cooking and it will be good, I promise you that“ Thomas mentally facepalmed at his mom’s ridiculous comment and decided that Newt had suffered through enough of his mom’s embarrassing small-talk, so he made his way down the stairs.   
“Uh… I really need to get home, but thank you for the offer Catherine.” Thomas could hear the forced smile in Newt’s voice even if he couldn’t see it.    
“Oh, that’s nonsense. I’m sure that the attic can wait another hour or two.” Thomas didn’t know why his mom was trying so hard to make Newt stay for dinner.    
“I uh... “ When he finally came down to the hallway Newt stopped mid-sentence and turned around to look at him. Thomas just nodded like he was telling him that it was okay for him to stay.    
“I guess that it can. Thank you.” Thomas’s mom lit up at the answer, nodded to Newt and then started to walk towards her son. Catherine pulled Thomas into a quick hug and they exchanged hello’s. When they loosened their swift embrace Catherine made her way towards the kitchen, which made Thomas groan internally because they never cleaned up their mess from lunch and he knew that his mom would comment on it. When the three of them entered the kitchen, Catherine turned around and looked straight at Thomas, but as always with the glimpse in her eyes. 

“Is cleaning a concept that you are familiar with Tom? Because if not, I suggest that you make it one” Thomas just glares at his mom but shakes his head and walks over to the sink, which makes him face away from the others. He can hear Catherine starting to talk to Newt once more while he starts the tap and waits for the water to become hot.    
“I’m sure that this isn’t all his doing? Go on Newt, you can grab a towel” He can hear the smile in her voice and when Newt doesn’t answer her, Thomas assumes that Newt nodded as an answer. 

“I’ll be in the living room, just tell me when you’re done with the dishes and I’ll start dinner.” With that she left the two uncomfortable boys alone. 

Slowly Newt walked over to where Thomas had started to scrub at one of the pots they used, and grabbed a towel. Neither of them said anything, and the silence just got heavier with each passing second. They kept cleaning until they were almost done when suddenly Newt spoke, making Thomas drop the plate he was holding back into the sink.

“I’m sorry.”

 

***

 

Newt didn’t know why he’d stopped when Catherine had called for him, or why he stayed to do the bloody dishes when she told him to. There was just something with her that he couldn’t say no to, just like with Thomas. He hadn’t been stubborn with him like he had with everyone else, he simply couldn’t be. And now he’d almost kissed the guy. He didn’t know why he had, they had just been so close and Newt had started to count those bloody moles again. He’d noticed a faint one just above Thomas lip that he hadn’t seen before, and then he started to lean in, even though his mind had screamed at him not to. He should have listened to his mind much sooner, before he’d started to become friends with Thomas. He shouldn’t had let this go so far. Now, because Newt had practically forced himself onto the guy, Thomas would probably cut Newt loose and leave, and that hurt more than Newt thought it would have. Newt tried to convince himself that this would be for the best. Even though he had come a far way, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to swim like he had done before. It would just never feel the same, and he didn’t want to see the look on Thomas face when he finally would understand that. So really, it was for the best if Thomas left now, saving them both a lot of frustration and probably tears on Newt’s part (even though he’d never admit it).

_ But if you want him to leave already, why are you still here?  _ a small part of his brain whispered, making Newt glance over at Thomas. The other boy was staring down on the plate he was cleaning  with more force than seemed necessary. It looked like Thomas was clenching his jaw and frowning hard, making his soft features sharp. The look didn’t suit him, and Newt felt the guilt in his gut growing, thinking of how it was his fault that Thomas had gotten angry.

“I’m sorry.” Without thinking about it, the words just slipped out. Thomas dropped the plate and the sound startled Newt. Thomas turned to face him and his expression was indescribable, Newt couldn’t figure out if he was surprised, sad, angry or relieved. 

“I- I shouldn’t have done what I did and I just… I wanted to apologise,” he finally manages to stammer out. Thomas didn’t say anything when they looked at each other, instead he just stared. First when he looked back down at the dishes again he spoke, and Newt released a breath he didn’t know he was holding.   
“It’s okay, it was nothing anyway.” Thomas smiles at Newt before turning back to the sink, but something about it seems off. He can’t say what it is though, because the small part of his brain that had been whispering earlier was screaming now. Had it really been nothing to Thomas? Does he still want Newt to leave? Slowly his mind starts to calm down again when the other boy speaks.

“And I should be apologizing too you know, I shouldn’t have laughed at you…” Thomas looked up at Newt again, and he must’ve seen how Newt felt because next thing he did was stammer out an explanation. 

“I mean that uh… I’m sorry I made you uncomfortable earlier. By laughing that is.” 

Newt was just about to speak up again when Catherine walked in.    
“How long can it take to clean up a few pots and a pan?” The two boys turned around when they heard Catherine come into the kitchen. “Seriously boys, in the time it took you to not even finish up, I could have started dinner! You have no idea how hungry you can get after operating all day.” She walked over to the sink and gently nudged Thomas away, taking over the scrubbing. “While I finish up you two can set the table. And Tom, I want you to take out the nice plates since Newt is staying over for dinner.” The two boys exchanged a look before they started to walk towards the cupboards, but once again Catherine interrupted them.

“Newt, you can go watch some tv, I left it on for you. I’ve already made the guest clean, I will not have him setting the table as well.” Thomas turned to his mother, and gaped at her.

“So I have to set the table all by myself?”

“Oh come on, you do that every day,” she said, waving a hand over her shoulder as she finished drying the last glas.

“Yeah, well now there’s an extra plate,” Thomas announced, as if it would make a difference. Catherine merely stared at him until he grumbled something close to “fine” and started towards the cupboards once more. Newt stood there, slightly confused as to what had just happened. What was he supposed to do now? Before he could ask Catherine was on him and pushed him towards the hallway.

“The tv-room is just across the hall, Tom will be there as soon as he’s done with helping me.” She smiled at him before turning back towards the kitchen to start dinner. After standing awkwardly in the hall for a moment, Newt walked into the living room. The sofas were a warm beige colour, along with the carpets, while the pillows and blankets were light blue. On the coffee table in front of the sofa stood a vase overflowing with flowers, and candles were lit, making the room glow in a soft light. Newt carefully sat down on the sofa, afraid of staining it or rumple it up. Catherine had been looking at some documentary about sloths and Newt decided to let it play. He couldn’t focus on it though, and found himself thinking about Thomas and Catherine instead. Their mother - son relationship seemed so easy, in lack of a better word. Newt still hadn’t met Thomas dad, so he didn’t know how similar they were yet, but right now Thomas appeared to have gotten every trait from his mother. They were so similar sometimes that it was scary with their undying curiosity, jokes and natural ways. Nothing seemed forced to Newt, and it was both interesting and hurtful to watch. Just yesterday Newt had all but run away from his own mother, taking refuge at his old coaches house. 

Sighing, he leaned back against the pillows, stains be damned. Thinking about it all instantly made him too tired to care. Tomorrow he’d have to talk with his mother, about moving to Jorge's house. He wasn’t entirely sure if he’d change address and get the mail to Jorge’s place, or if he’d visit her a few times a week to check it there. The last option sounded smoother to him and he’d have an excuse to go there more often than Jorge might want him to. 

Laughing from the kitchen caught Newt’s attention, and he listened for a while. Even Thomas and Catherine’s laugh sounded alike. It made Newt think about what similarities there were between him and his mother. When it came to looks you couldn’t even tell they were related. His mother was short and rather curvy, with straight black hair, a round face and full lips. Newt himself was tall and lanky since the muscle he’d gained when he had been swimming had started to fade away. His hair was a blonde mess and his jaw was rather squared, along with thin lips. The only thing they had in common was their dark eyes, but other than that, Newt was practically the spitting image of his dad. His expression instantly turned sour and Newt tried to focus back on the documentary. There wasn’t any point in thinking about that now. 

Suddenly Thomas walked into the room, making Newt jump a little as he gasped. 

“The sloth documentary!” The dark-haired boy laughed and pulled out his phone. “I’m sending a snap to Teresa about this, I knew someone would like it.” Straightening up, Newt tried to laugh a bit, but it sounded forced. 

“What do you mean with that,” he asked and Thomas looked up from his phone at him. They held eye contact for a moment before Thomas broke it and cleared his throat. 

“Oh, it’s a thing between me and Teresa. We were going to watch a movie and I chose this documentary. She uh… didn’t exactly find it as good as I did.” Thomas voice grew quiet as he reached the end of his sentence and he started to fiddle with the phone. It all hit Newt like a ton of bricks then. Of course Thomas had laughed at him, the guy had a girlfriend for christs sake! How had he not picked up on that sooner? He knew who Teresa was thanks to the swim team, and he’d seen them talk during training or in the corridors a lot. How long had they been together? Thomas was fairly new in the school still, but with his looks Newt guessed it wasn’t too hard to get a girlfriend. Newt tried to swallow down the lump in his throat, but it remained. 

“Aha.” Newt shouldn’t ask. He really doesn’t need to know and it’s really not his business. “How long have you guys been… a thing?” Again, he should start listening to his own mind. 

Thomas snapped his head up and hastily put his phone away. 

“What?” He looked almost disgusted when saying it and Newt instantly felt guilty. Heat creeped up his cheeks and Newt scratched his neck.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked, I just… I should have understood that you had a girlfriend it’s just that-”

“No hold up, Teresa is not my girlfriend!” This time Thomas actually scrunched his face up. “She’s like my sister, I’ve known her my whole life.” 

“Oh…” was all Newt could say. He racked his brain for any other form of response, but came up blank. Thomas was still giving him that slightly disgusted look and Newt felt himself shrink away. It looked like Thomas was about to say something when the door to the house opened. The dark haired boy turned to the doorway of the living room, looking out into the hallway. He glanced back over his shoulder at Newt before walking closer to the doorway. 

“Hi dad,” Thomas said. Newt looked over Thomas shoulder and saw a man tug of his jacket by the entrance. “How was work?” 

The man looked up at Thomas and smiled, shaking his head. 

“Just like any other day, not much to report.” Suddenly Catherine was calling out from the kitchen. 

“Oh good, you’re home!” Newt heard her walk towards the hallway and soon she was standing Next to Thomas father. “Thomas has a friend over for dinner, and I want you to be nice.” She then gave her husband a look that Newt couldn’t see, but Thomas apparently did. He sighed and brought his hand up to his face.

“Oh really,” Thomas father said and looked at his son, who was tapping his foot. “Where are they?” 

Before Thomas could say anything Catherine pointed towards the living room.

“In there. Dinner's almost ready so go and introduce yourself.” With that she turned around and walked back into the kitchen. Before Newt had much time to react, Thomas father was already walking up to him with a smile on his face, Thomas quickly following behind. When he finally processed that Thomas father would want an introduction, Newt scrambled to his feet just in time to grab the man’s outstretched hand. 

“You’re Thomas friend I suppose? My name is Stephen.” Thomas dad - Stephen - squeezed Newt’s hand and shook it, and Newt tried to return the smile that was still plastered onto the other’s face.

“Yes, I’m Newt,” he said while glancing over at Thomas. “Nice to meet you mr. Murphy.” For just a moment Stephen squeezed his hand harder, still smiling, and Newt had to force himself not to pull his hand away. The man in front of him was as tall as Newt, but with a broader frame. He had black hair and a short beard with streaks of grey. He had a friendly air about him, but right now he looked almost dangerous. 

“You’re staying over for dinner, huh?” 

“Yeah, Cathr- mrs. Murphy invited me.” The hard grip that Stephen still had on Newt’s hand made him nervous, and Thomas must have noticed something because suddenly he was stepping between them and smiling at his father.

“Hey dad, why don’t you go and help mom with the last things? We’ll be right there.” Stephen looked at Thomas for a while, before letting go of Newt’s hand and giving them both a smile. 

“Yes of course.” Without much else he left, and the two boys stood in an awkward silence. Newt didn’t know what to do with himself except stand there, so that’s what he did. Finally though Thomas spoke. 

“Seems like i always have to apologise for my parents, huh?” he said with a laugh, but it quickly died down. “Anyway, I’m sorry for that… he usually is much nicer, I don’t know why he behaved like that but-”

“It’s okay, really.” Newt turned to Thomas and gave a small smile to calm him down, even though it was fake. It seemed to work though, as Thomas smiled back. The dark haired boy opened his mouth to speak when suddenly Catherine’s head poked into the room.

“Dinner’s served boys, come on and eat.” Instantly Thomas face brightened and he grabbed Newt’s wrist, dragging him to the dining hall. Newt in turn became nervous. Firstly because Thomas was kind of holding his hand, even after the night’s events, and secondly because of Stephen. Even though Thomas said he was a nice bloke, Newt’s first impression had been slightly different. Yes, Stephen looked friendly, but also kind of intimidating. 

Once they entered the dining hall, Catherine and Stephen already sat across from one another, leaving a spot next to either of them. Newt hurried to sit next to Catherine, and Thomas seemed to already know that Newt would choose that spot, so he slid into the chair next to his father. As soon as Newt sat down, Catherine was putting food on his plate. He thanked her, but she put on some more before seeming satisfied and starting filling her own plate. It was some sort of chicken pasta, with sun-dried tomatoes and cheese melted into the sauce. The smell made his mouth water, but he restrained from eating until everyone else had started as well. It was one of the best meals he’d had in a long time, and he had to restrain himself from moaning as he ate. For a while Newt forgot that he was eating mostly with strangers and just shoveled the food into his mouth.

Suddenly Stephen spoke, making Newt scramble to sit up straight and swallow the food he was still chewing.

“So Newt,” he began, smiling at the blonde. “Thomas has mentioned some things about you but not much. Did you grow up in the US? It sounds like you’re from England.” 

“Uh, yes I did grow up in the US,” Newt cleared his throat before continuing. “But my parents moved here just before I was born, so that’s where I got it from.” 

“Really?” Stephen leaned forwards a bit, putting his arms on the table. “Why did they move? It must’ve been a big decision.” 

Newt felt something cold grow in the pit of his stomach, and it crept up towards his chest. He really didn’t want to talk about his parents, but he couldn’t exactly say that. If he did they’d know something was up and start to pry even more, but Newt could handle it himself, with the help of Jorge. Newt looked down at his plate and poked a bit at the pasta he had left with his fork.

“Oh you know, work offers and such.” Newt’s voice had gotten quieter, and he hoped that the short answer and lack of eye-contact would be an indicator to switch the topic, but either Stephen hadn’t noticed or he didn’t care. 

“What do they work with now? And where in the town do you live?” 

Newt tightened his grip on the fork and forced himself not to snap at Thomas dad. His family had been nothing but kind to him and he wasn’t going to be rude towards them. He chose to ignore the first question, hoping Stephen didn’t notice. 

“I live in the outskirts of town, close to the river. It takes a while to get to school but it’s a rather nice area.” Right after he answered, Newt shoved some pasta in his mouth to avoid talking. It sounded like Stephen was about to speak again, when Thomas suddenly cut in. 

“Oh yeah, Minho gives you a ride sometimes right?” Newt looked up at Thomas, who gave Newt a small smile. He turned towards Stephen and started to wave his fork between himself and Newt. “Minho is a guy on the swim team, he’s Newt’s friend originally but we’ve started to hang out by the pools after school sometimes.” Thomas continued to babble on about the swim team, how he was getting on and a bit about school. It took the focus off Newt and he couldn’t have been more grateful at that moment. It gave Newt some time to think. Thomas didn’t know much about Newt’s family, just that he had some problems at home, and that Newt was staying at Jorge’s place for the time being, if he’d been able to pick that up from earlier. When Newt thought of it, Thomas didn’t know much about Newt in general, not about his family, his interests, why he stopped swimming… Newt shuddered at the last thought, trying to suppress the memories that started to flood. He focused back on the conversation that was still going on. Thomas talked about how they had been at the pools today, but he didn’t mention why exactly. 

“Oh, that’s right, you all but threw poor Teresa out the door when you hurried off to the pools,” Catherine said and chuckled. When Newt glanced at Thomas he could see that the boy’s cheeks were dusted pink and that he was spluttering out a reply. 

“Well- uh, she had to leave anyways. It’s not my fault we happened to both be in a hurry…” Catherine chuckled some more, before returning to her meal, the others following suit. 

 

Once the dinner was over, Newt made himself ready to thank for the meal and then get out of there. Sure, it had been nice but he’d noticed how Thomas had avoided speaking to him. It had mostly been conversation between him or Newt and Thomas parents, but barely none between him and Newt. So, well… Newt noticed that he’d messed it all up. First with the kiss and then with asking if Teresa was his girlfriend, which he now knew she wasn’t. And although Stephen seemed more friendly now, Newt still caught the man glaring from time to time, and it was unnerving. Thomas was busying himself with collecting the plates and taking them to the sink, while Stephen took care of the left-overs. He had tried to help as well, but Catherine had held him back, saying that it was their chores anyway. Right now he was just sitting next to her, not knowing what to do. 

“Um, Catherine?” She turned to him with a smile, silently prompting him to continue. “I think that I need to get home now, so thank you f-” 

“What, are you leaving already,” Catherine cut him off, making both Thomas and Stephen look over. Thomas, however, quickly turned back to what he was doing, and Newt ignored the slight pang in his chest. 

“We haven’t even had the dessert yet,” she all but screeched. “I made plum-pie, it’s my special recipe!” Newt hesitated a for a moment, not sure what to do. Again, the Murphy’s were hard to say no to. 

“I uh… I guess I could stay for a while longer.” He gave her a half-smile as Catherine squeezed his arm. 

“Perfect! Tom can give you a ride later if it gets too late, since you live so far away.” Newt felt how the smile turned from genuine to forced. First he spent awkward dinner with Thomas and his family, and then he was going to spend an awkward car-trip with the bloke as well. He needed to practice to say no to these people. 

Not much else was said until Newt had the pie in front of him, and instantly the others at the table were digging in. After the dinner, Newt knew Catherine was a good cook, but the pie was way better than he could have imagined. Remembering how he had been eating earlier though, Newt restrained himself from shoveling the food into his mouth, instead eating it slowly, trying to savor the taste. 

“This is really good mrs Murphy, thank you,” he said once he was done. Catherine smirked knowingly, glancing at her husband. 

“Thank you Newt! Back when we lived on the coast, I used to make this pie every week. We had plum-trees in our backyard there.” She smiled now, and a glance around the table told Newt that they were all thinking back to where they lived before. It looked like they missed it a lot.

“Why did you move?” His question seemed to break a spell as all eyes turned to him. “I mean… if you don’t mind me asking, Tommy never told me so uh…” 

“Oh no worries!” Catherine said, once again smiling at him. “Well you see, Thomas and Teresa's fathers work for the same company, and had been friends long before I came into the picture. Both of them got a new job-offer here, by the same company and Teresa's family, the Agnes, moved as soon as they could. We considered it for a longer while, but when I noticed that both Stephen and Thomas missed their best friends I knew it was for the best if we moved as well.” 

“Oh…” Newt said, not sure what else to add. 

“We enjoy it here, but there are some things I miss. Like my plum-trees.” the smile, is possible, grew warmer and Newt could only nod in response. He really liked Catherine. Sure she was a bit too curious sometimes, but she was such a caring person and for more than a moment, Newt was jealous of Thomas and his family. 

“Well boys, I think it’s time Newt got home safely.” Catherine stood, and so did Stephen. “We’ll put this away and you can take him home Tom, I’ve been holding Newt here long enough,” she said with a laugh. 

Newt stood and was about to thank them again for the meal, when Catherine suddenly hugged him. For a moment he just stood there, paralysed. Then, just as he was about to raise his arms to hug her, she drew back, but she kept her hands on his shoulders.

“It’s been a pleasure having you here Newt, you’re welcome back any time.” Once again, Newt could only nod. When Catherine stepped away she was replaced by her husband, who clasped a hand on his shoulder as well. 

“Nice meeting you Newt.” That was all he said, before turning back around to take care of the dishes on the table. Newt just kept on standing there, Not sure what to do with himself, when Thomas called out.

“Hey, Newt? You coming?” 

“Uh, yeah, I’ll be right there.” He tried giving Catherine a sincere smile as he thanked her, and then he walked towards the front door. 

 

***

 

When the two boys were seated in Thomas’ car the awkward silence was almost touchable. Thomas pulled out of the driveway and drove down the street, when he realised that he for some reason had turned off the radio during his previous car-ride. He felt like it would make the whole thing even weirder if he tried to turn it on, so he decided that he would just leave it for now. Thomas glanced over on the passenger seat and saw how tense Newt was, sitting there barely touching the seat with his back and his hands neatly folded in his lap. He quickly turned his eyes to the road again, just to notice that he had no idea where he was driving. He didn’t know where Newt lived or if he should drop him off at Jorge’s place. With the hope that he wouldn’t sound too lost he carefully asked Newt. 

“Uh, where exactly are we going?” He cringed at the comment and tried to keep his eyes off of the blonde boy beside him, but glanced over anyways.

“Jorge’s place will be fine” There wasn't any emotions in the answer, so Thomas found it difficult to read the boy. 

“He lives at Jackson street, right? On west side?” Newt nodded and Thomas took a left turn out on the highway. When they got out on the open road he could see how Newt relaxed into his seat and finally dropped his hands so that they now laid flat on his thighs. There was a lot of traffic for this hour but it went pretty smooth so far. Well, that was until they left the highway after about fifteen minutes and started driving along one of the bigger roads in this part of town. They suddenly slowed down and after a minute or so they came to a stop. Thomas tried to stretch his neck so that he could see what’s going on, but when he didn’t see anything he sat down in his seat again. 

“Can you see what’s going on?” He tried start a conversation to avoid the silence. 

“No, not really” But with Newt’s short answer it died pretty quickly, in an attempt to keep the conversation alive he started asking questions. 

“So, what are you going to do tomorrow?” Newt just ignored him when he started talking and turned away to look out the window at the lane beside him that was slowly moving forward. 

“Okay…” He drummed on the wheel with his thumbs before continuing. “Do you have any interesting classes in school?” Once again Newt just ignored him, and when Thomas followed Newts eyes he looked down on Newt’s hands he saw that he was fidgeting with his thumbs as if he was nervous about something. Thomas didn’t know why he looked down at Newt’s hands as much as he did, but they really were beautiful. He thought about how they felt every time he touched them, in the pool, when he dragged the boy along and when he happened to touch them either in school or at any other time. They were always a little chilly, just enough to make Thomas want to take them in both of his warm ones and just heat them up.    
“I’m sorry…” This made Newt look up from his hands and directly at Thomas’s face, which made Thomas blush and lower his gaze once more. 

“I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable back home, and for my mom making you stay for dinner, and for you know… everything” He wasn’t sure if he should bring the kiss back up, but he didn’t because he thought that it would make the situation even more tense.    
“I know. It’s okay.” Newt smiled one of his forced smiles and looked back down at his hands. 

“Are you sure? I mean, you don’t seem to be okay.”

“Well, I am.” This time he turned back to the window. The silence fell over them once again and Thomas turned his eyes back to the road, or more like the car that was placed right in front of his. He silently gripped the wheel a little tighter and spoke one more time. 

“Is this about the… uh… kiss thing?” He didn’t look at Newt this time, and he knew that Newt wasn’t looking at him ether. They both knew that it was all both of them could think about.

“You brought it up earlier but… you know… my mom.” He loosened his grip around the wheel and let his hands slide down to the bottom of it. “We didn’t really talk it through did we?” 

“I apologized, you know” Newt whispered. 

“Yeah I know, I just… I don’t want things to be complicated between us and I really hate when you can’t be around someone because of _one_ _thing_ that happened. I really don’t want to lose you now, not when we’ve gotten this far.“ When he realized what he just said he freaked out internally. “I mean, uh with practise…”

“Yeah, I know…”  Newt once again looked away from Thomas and the uncomfortable silence fell over them again. The traffic was slowly starting to move again, but they were about ten minutes away from Jorge’s place. Thomas didn’t know what to say anymore so he kept quiet and started the engine again ready to keep driving. A few minutes later, they started moving again and soon they were up no normal speed again. None of them had said anything for a while, and this time Thomas was stubborn. They got closer to Jorge’s house and when they stopped at a red-light Newt finally turned to him. 

“You know what? It’s okay, I’m fine and we’re fine too. Don’t worry.” It sounded both forced and genuine at the same time, but it was the only thing that could have been said in this situation anyways. Although, Thomas didn’t just want to drop this because he didn’t really believe what Newt said. 

“I do worry. This whole evening turned awkward right after t-the thing and just… we don’t seem fine.” He briefly closed his eyes and tilted his head a little, before opening his them again to look over at Newt. 

“The  _ thing, _ as you call it, wasn’t a thing! Okay, it was a…” Newt sighed and put his head in his hands “ I don’t know, you were really close, okay? I kind of freaked out, that’s it.” 

“That’s it?”

“Yes.” Newt paused and then smiled a small smile. “We’re good Tommy.” When Thomas heard the nickname, he decided that it might actually be okay. The silence during the rest of the ride was a little more comfortable, and when Thomas pulled up outside of Jorge’s house both of the boys got out of the car. Thomas walked around the car, and they now stood across from each other without saying anything.

“Goodnight then,” Thomas finally said. Suddenly, Newt moved forward and pulled Thomas into a quick hug, and even though the brunette was in shock he hugged back as fast as he could. It was over before he could think about it further, and Newt was already on his way inside. Thomas watched as the boy walked up on the porch and put a hand on the door, when Newt turned around and looked straight up at Thomas. 

“Goodnight.“ It was barely loud enough to hear where the brunette stood, but the small smile that played on the blonde boy’s lips was enough to make Thomas sure that they would be okay. Before Thomas could answer him, Newt turned around, opened the door and disappeared into the dimly lit hallway on the other side. 

It took Thomas a few minutes to get back inside the car, but when he did he threw one last look at his coach’s house and drove off. The ride home was calm, without traffic jams and a just little lonely. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As we said, a really long chapter but a lot happened. Hope you all enjoyed, we’d love to hear what you think so please comment! And as last time it will take a while for us to upload, but we will aim to update before christmas.   
> Thanks for reading and see you soon!<3


	8. chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, we’re alive! We are really sorry that it took so long this time too, but the new chapter is finally here. It might be the one you’ve been waiting for… Anyway, a little longer chapter this time too and we hope that you’ll like it!  
> TW: alcoholic behaviour and angst

Thomas wakes up the next morning at 9, feeling exhausted. His head is still spinning from all of the thoughts that went through his mind last night. They kept him up far into the night when everyone else was sleeping and from the lack of sleep his head hurt even more, but he didn’t think that it was so bad after all. Because he stayed up last night to think about Newt, and that could never be a bad thing. He rolls out of bed and throws on a t-shirt before he makes his way downstairs to eat breakfast with his parents. When he was sleepwalking down the stairs the smell of newly fried bacon and pancakes reached him, which made him wake up a little more and speed up. He was soon entering the kitchen where he found his dad at the stove flipping the last pancakes and serving the bacon that would go along with the already done eggs on the table. His mom was seated at the table reading a magazine with her cup of newly brewed coffee. She lifted her gaze and looked over at the sleepy boy in the doorframe.    
“Good morning, sleepy head. I was just about to call you down for breakfast.” Thomas just hums and walks over to the table, but not without grabbing a cup of coffee at the counter for himself before he sits down. When Thomas’ dad placed the pancakes and the bacon on the table Thomas were already all over them, putting as much food on his plate that could fit. His mom chuckled and the three of them were soon eating and talking just as every other sunday morning. 

“How did the ride back to Newt’s go last night?” Thomas’ dad shitfted his gaze from his wife to his son and looked at Thomas with a smile.    
“Uh, we got stuck in traffic, but otherwise it was fine. Why are you asking that now?” Thomas looked down on his food and tried to suppress the blush that was heating up his face as he thought about last night once more. For some reason his mind went straight to the hug Newt gave him before walking inside the house. 

“You came home rather late, we just thought maybe you followed him inside?” His mom’s comment made him blush even harder. Thomas couldn’t fight it any more so he just continued to stare down on his food and awkwardly clear his throat.    
“No, I didn’t. As I said we got stuck in traffic for a while and he lives on west side so it took a while to get there”

“Really? So there’s nothing  _ going on  _ between you two?” His mom grinned and looked at him with an expression that made Thomas groan and let his head fall against the table.

“Mom, just because I’m bi doesn’t mean I like  _ everyone _ .” He muttered against the table, shaking his head slightly. His dad then spoke up. 

“Are you sure? Your mother says I’m bad at this but I do think I saw something between the two of you.” Thomas just sighed and tried to put on a straight face, trying not to smile. 

“You two are the worst parents ever, you know that right?” He lifted his head from the table and looked over at the two grown ups sitting beside and across from him, who were looking at each other with those smug smiles. He remembered the time when he told his parents that he was bisexual, and cringed and smiled at the same time. 

 

_ Two weeks after his fifteenth birthday he  decided that it finally was time and, God, he was so nervous. Teresa had urged him on for ages, saying that he needs to tell his parents about this. She had known for almost a whole year and he hadn’t even had to tell her, she just knew. His parents were still sitting at the table after dinner while he was doing some dishes and it seemed like a good time to bring it up. Before he lost his nerve, Thomas cleared his throat and turned to his parents.  _

_ “Mom, dad, there is something I want to tell you.” Catherine looked up at him and smiled at him. When Stephen didn’t look up from his phone Catherine whacked him on the shoulder and they both turned to Thomas. _

_ “What is it Tom?”  _

_ “Well uh… You know…” Catherine furrowed her brows. He sighed and clenched his jaws. Why was this so hard? He and his parents could talk about everything, but now he hesitated?  _

_ “I like girls but… I think that I…” He let out a frustrated sigh when he couldn’t get the words out.  _

_ “I think that I like boys too.” When Thomas said this he looked straight at his parents, trying to seem more confident than he was. Both of them were quiet for a moment, before Catherine smiled brightly at him.  _

_ “I knew it!” Catherine got out of her chair and walked over to Thomas who could only blink.  _

_ “What?”  _

_ “Oh, you know that boy on the football team? When we’re on games you can barely tear your eyes off of him. And that girl you walked to school with last year? You always tripped because you looked at her all the time.” Catherine pulled Thomas into a tight hug and the nerves loosened up a little. He then looked over to his dad who were looking at him with a soft expression.  _

_ “And you?” Thomas asked, suddenly even more nervous than earlier.  _

_ “Who do you think your mother theorised with?”  _

 

“I think that I might like him.” 

 

***

 

The houses pass by the window as they drive down the street. Jorge and Newt are sitting in the car with the radio playing softly in the background, but Newt ignores it. He hadn’t slept well last night thanks to all the thoughts running around in his head. Everything that had happened at Thomas place came crashing down on him the moment his head hit the pillow, and they were only replaced with worrying for today. They were going to talk to Newt’s mother, or rather Newt was going to talk to her about moving to Jorge’s house for the rest of high school. Newt had one and a half term left, so it wasn’t for long but there was no way knowing how she was going to react. His thoughts screeched to a halt when Jorge stopped the car and Newt was face to face with his house. The grass had grown a bit in these two days, making the house look even shabbier than it already did. Jorge’s voice made Newt look away from the house. 

“Do you want me to come with you?” Newt hesitated before answering. It would feel good to know that Jorge was right behind him, but if his mum was in a bad mood he didn’t want to risk anything. He took a deep breath and turned back towards the house.

“No, it’s okay.” Before he changed his mind, Newt unbuckled himself and opened the door, stepping out onto the cracked pavement. “I’ll be right back.”

Jorge leaned over the seat and gave Newt a reassuring smile. 

“Take all the time you need.” He glanced over Newt’s shoulder and his expression turned more grim. “If anything happens I’m right here.” Newt nodded and started to walk up the driveway, taking a deep breath as he climbed up the porch. He fished up the key from his jacket and jiggled with the lock, before pushing the door open. 

 

Stepping into the hallway, Newt noticed that most lights were turned off, and the blinds were drawn shut. He poked his head into the kitchen, but it was empty. The door to the fridge was open so he went over and closed it. 

“Mum,” he called out. “Are you home?” There was some shuffling down the hallway, and Newt went over to see where it was coming from. Just when he reached the doorway, the door to his mother’s room opened and she glanced out. 

“Newton?” When she saw him she stepped out into the hallway. “You’re home.” For a while they just stared at each other, not sure what to say. Newt looked at his mother and felt a pang of guilt when he saw her messy hair and sunken eyes, but for a moment she almost looked excited, like she was glad to have him home. 

“Uh, yeah. You seem… better now than you did on Friday.” When Newt said that whatever excitement that was left disappeared.

“I am sorry about that.” She spoke slowly, as if she needed to think through every word. “But that was the last time, I swear.” 

Newt sighed and looked down at the floor. This wasn’t the first time she said that, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. 

“Mum, can we sit down,” Newt asked and pointed back towards the kitchen. 

“Yes, of course.” She hurries past him and sits down, pulling her hair up in a knot to get it out of her eyes. 

“What is it Newt,” she asks as soon as he sits down. Before answering Newt takes a deep breath and drags a hand through his hair. 

“You know when I left this Friday?” Newt’s mum nods and leans back in her chair, wrapping her arms around herself. “Well, I went to Jorge’s place and… I told him what happened.” She makes a strangled noise but Newt focuses on the floor. 

“He said he would report you if this doesn’t stop.” Instantly she is leaning over the table and grabbing the hand Newt has resting on the table.

“I promise that this was the last time Newt, please I promise!” Newt squeezes her hand and shakes his head.

“I’m not finished.” He looks up and she nods to show that she’s listening. “He said that he won’t call the police if I start to live with him.” 

For a while no one says anything, they just look at each other. After a while Newt starts to feel uncomfortable and squeezes her hand again. 

“I mean, I’m still going to come and-” 

“You’re leaving.” Her voice is small, yet it seems to make the air in the room crack. Newt swallows and shakes his head. 

“No, I’m not. Listen, the plan is that I come and visit as often as I can and help you with the chores and then when high school is done I come back to live here again.” At that she pulls her hand away and chuckles a bit. 

“I can’t believe this.” She wipes furiously at her eyes before standing up. “Not only do you look like that swine, you act like him too,” his mother hisses. Newt feels his whole body grow cold at her words, and he continues to stare at the place where his mother just sat. 

“‘Don’t worry Lily, I’ll be home next week!’, ‘Don’t worry mum I’ll be home next year!’ Why don’t you just tell me the truth from the start?” 

“I am telling you the truth.” Newt got out between gritted teeth. He tried to keep his cool, but he was sick of this. It felt like he was close to snapping and his mother going through the cabins wasn’t doing any good to his temper. Instead of trying to reason anymore he got up and walked into his room across the hall, grabbing a bag and stuffing it with clothes. After a moment of hesitation he threw his sketchpad in there as well, before closing the bag and throwing it across his shoulder. When Newt stepped out of his room, he noticed that his mother wasn’t in the kitchen anymore and it made his blood boil. Rushing down the hallway, he stepped into the living-room and saw his mother on the couch, a beer in hand and two more on the table in front of her. Without thinking Newt stepped forward and grabbed the can out of her hand, and took the other two before she even had a chance to react. While he stalked to the kitchen he opened all the cans. Newt could hear his mother standing up and hurrying after him, but she was shorter than him and couldn’t catch up in time to stop Newt from pouring all of it down the drain. 

“What are you doing?!” Lily made a move to grab the cans but he kept them out of her reach and threw them in the trash. 

“I’m done. Okay, I’m done with all of this.” He pushed past her and walked to the door, but stopped when he heard sniffles. The sound broke his heart, like it had so many times before. Newt stood in front of the door, not able to move. Finally he turned slightly and spoke loud enough for his mother to hear. 

“I’ll be back on Tuesday to check up on you. See you then.” With that he opened the door and left the house. 

 

***

 

Thomas stood in the hallway and struggled with his lock. It was monday morning and he hadn’t gotten his coffee yet, so it felt like he was sleepwalking. He silently cursed his lock and the fact that school had to start so damn early every day. When he finally could open his locker to get his books out, he saw Brenda and Newt entering through the main doors. The three of them plus some other people from the team all had biology this period and chem right after. Thomas was ready to lose his shit once more when he looked closer at Newt, but he didn’t. There was something wrong, he could tell even from this distance. Newt wasn’t glowing like he usually did, not with his smile or with his eyes. Thomas didn’t catch up with them before they entered the classroom, and got seated a few spots away from both Brenda and Newt. He could still hear them from where he sat, but with them whispering it became really difficult to make out the words. It sounded like Bren was trying to sooth him while Newt just sat there with no emotions in his body language. Before Thomas could lean in any closer to catch anything else from their conversation, the lesson started. The biology teacher, mr. Vince, entered the room and pulled up a several pages long presentation about the human body.

“Today class, we will discuss the human brain. We will start off by identifying the different parts of the cerebrum such as the frontal lobe and parietal lobe as well as their functions.” Vince switched slide to one that showed the brain, divided up into four areas, and started to explain their different roles. It was interesting enough, but Thomas couldn’t ignore the little voice inside his head that screamed at him that Newt wasn’t okay.

The class proceeded and Thomas was for once paying most of his attention to what the teacher was saying. It went smooth all the way through and when the teachers switched places with each other everyone in class pulled up their chem books and sighed. Almost all of them didn’t find molar masses as interesting as Janson did. There were still no change in Newt’s odd behaviour, and it still made Thomas very uneasy. The chem lesson went by not as pleasant as the biology one, and he almost fell asleep when Janson started rambling about carbon 12. When the bell finally rang everyone was out of the room in a matter of seconds, but Brenda and Newt lingered a little. Thomas approached them slowly, and sat down on top of the table right next to them. Their conversation died out when they both turned to look at Thomas, who smiled a little smile. 

“Is everything okay?” Thomas looked directly at Newt when he asked, but the blonde boy first let his gaze fall to the ground, and then looked up at Brenda beside him and nodded the smallest nod to her as if he told her to leave the two of them alone for a minute. She nodded back and excused herself and left the two boys alone in the empty classroom. When Newt still didn’t answer the question, he asked again. 

“What’s wrong?” Newt let out a frustrated sigh and lifted his head to look at Thomas. There was an emptiness in his eyes that he hadn’t seen before and to be honest, it scared him a little. Thomas had noticed earlier that there were no glow in Newt’s eyes, but he now saw that there were no light or love either. Newt’s blonde hair were wilder than ever and the slightly dark area underneath his eyes made him look tired.    
“Nothing that you have anything to do with.” The answer was harsher than Thomas expected, so without thinking about it he leaned back and away from Newt and furrowed his brows. Then as Thomas saw hurt flashing in the deep brown eyes in front of him, his expression changed.    
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…” Newt bent his head back while sighing and looked at the ceiling before looking back down. “I don’t even know what I’m still doing here.” he said and looked around. He bent down to pick up his bag and Thomas jumped down from the table and stepped closer to him and put a reassuring hand on Newt’s shoulder. Newt froze at the touch and looked over at Thomas, who was trying to figure out how to make him open up. He put on his best puppy-eyes and smiled a weak smile. Another heavy sigh.   
“We’ll talk about it later, sounds fair?” 

“Yeah, sure.”

 

***

 

Newt sat on the steps leading to the locker-rooms, trying to look focused what he was reading. Right now he was waiting for the training to end, and even though he in some strange way wanted to get in the water, there was the underlying fear of getting close to Thomas. After what happened this weekend, plus Newt snapping at Thomas earlier made it tense between the two. He had apologised and thanks to Thomas puppy-dog eyes he’d promised to tell him later. Now was later, and he was not ready. He let his eyes wander from the text and over to where the others were practicing. Newt sighed when he saw how Minho’s body still wasn’t completely in synch when swimming butterfly, he needed to fix that. He tried to refocus on the book, but his thoughts were cut off by Jorge’s “encouraging” as he said himself, which to Newt sounded more like yelling than anything else. His gaze was suddenly drawn to Thomas, thanks to the deep breath he made that could be heard to where Newt was sitting. As he watched, it became clear that Thomas forgot to inhale as he was above the surface and had to take deep breaths when he did remember. Suddenly Thomas stopped and started coughing, making Newt chuckle. The idiot had inhaled as his head was going down and he’d choked. Jorge yelled at Thomas to get out of the way, so he swam up to the edge, still coughing. Once the coughing stopped Thomas pointed to Minho. 

“Somebody swam past me and created a huge wave, no wonder I got it all in my mouth!” Jorge just laughed and Thomas grumbled a bit before taking off again. 

Newt smiled slightly as he watched the exchange, thinking back to all the times that had happened to him. Jorge looked over at him and smiled, before starting to yell out orders to the swimmers. Some swimmers scrambled to do as he said, but most just groaned and complained before getting to it. Watching the others swim always brought back memories, and now Newt couldn’t stop thinking about his first lesson. 

 

_ Newt was standing in a line together with some other kids, staring up at the man in front of him.  _

_ “Okay kids, time to get into the pool,” Jorge said and all kids rushed to jump into the blue water. Newt was one of the first ones, and by the end of the lesson he was the last one out. It had been the most fun he’d had in weeks, and he wasn’t ready to leave just yet.  _

_ “Newton, we need to leave now honey,” his mother said and held out her hand for him to take. _

_ “No! Please, can we stay a little longer? Please mum,” he pleaded. The woman sighed but gave a soft smile.  _

_ “Sure honey, but just a short while.” Newt squealed and  swam out to the middle of the pool. He swam around for a while when he saw Jorge walk up to his mother. He ignored the adults at first, but suddenly heard his name. _

_ “Newt stays up late every night waiting for Martin. He said he’d be home in a week, but work is holding him back.” She smiled at Jorge but it looked tired. “It’s okay though, he promised that it’d be done in a few days, then he’ll be home again.” _

_ “Yes of course,” Jorge replied, but there was something in his voice that Newt didn’t like. Instead of listening he dived to the bottom of the pool, trying to stay there for as long as he could. It made him mad when his dad was brought up. Newt tried to call every day but he never picked up, and when he finally called himself it was just to say that he had to stay for another week.. It got hard to hold his breath and he had to go up to the surface.  _

_ “Newt, come out of the water now, we have to get home!” With a sigh Newt made his way towards the edge of the pool.  _

_ “Coming…”  _

 

Suddenly the whistle blew and the swimmers made their way out of the pool. After a quick speech from Jorge they were sent off to the showers. Newt remained on the stairs until the last one of the swimmers had left, save for Thomas, Minho and Brenda. They were all stretching whilst talking to each other and just as Newt got up to them, Thomas raised his arms above his head and leant back slightly. Newt slowed to a stop a few metres away from the trio, and found himself looking up and down Thomas body. The first time he’d done so it had purely been to asses him, to see if his body type was cut for the swim-style he competed in. Now there wasn’t any need to do so, Newt knew how well Thomas performed, yet he couldn’t stop himself. He  _ wanted _ to look at Thomas. His back was turned to Newt right now, and Newt couldn’t tear his eyes away from it. He followed the muscles all the way from the middle of Thomas’s back, over the shoulderblades, up to his neck and out over his left arm. From triceps to biceps and when the muscles started to fade out into Thomas’s hand Newt finally caught himself staring. Newt let his eyes fall down on the floor as he blushed, but when he tried to look up again to start an actual conversation Thomas’s body distracted him once more. You could really see on his muscles how the freestyle had shaped them, both explosive and lean at the same time. Thomas stretched from side to side now, and when he put his arms down Newt just admired the slow movement in the muscles. At last, Newt collected himself and walked up to the stretching trio. Minho noticed him first, and smirked at Newt got close. If that shank had noticed Newt starring he was doomed. 

“Well look who we have here,” he said, making Thomas and Brenda turn to him. 

“Hello to you too,” Newt said and gave him a warning look. Minho’s smirk grew but he kept quiet. 

“Hi Newt,” Thomas said and smiled at him. Newt smiled back but broke the eye contact before he started to stare again. He cleared his throat before looking at Brenda and Minho.

“What were you guys talking about?”   
“Not much, just a bit about the upcoming competition. We’re betting on whether one of us will get to the top three,” Brenda filled him in. Minho smirked and was about to say something when Newt beat him to it.

“I bet 10 bucks on Brenda.” Both Minho and Thomas turned to him with shocked expressions. 

“I thought you were going to be on my side,” Minho yelled. 

“Yeah Newt, where’s the trust?” Thomas put a hand over his heart and pouted. Newt chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Well, Brenda has the best technique out of the three of you, and as far as I know, the worst competition.” Brenda smiled and shoved at Minho who had turned his shocked expression to her. 

“There you go, the swim-guru has spoken.” Brenda bent forward in a mock bow, and both Minho and Thomas huffed. 

“Okay, thanks to that horrible betrayal I will go home,” Minho said and turned towards the locker-rooms. “Brenda are you coming too?” The girl in question turned to him with a slightly confused expression but nodded. They started to walk away, and Thomas turned to Newt. 

“So uh… did you want to practise today?” 

“Yes, I have my things in the locker-room, I’ll go and change,” Newt said and Thomas smiled.

“Okay, I’ll uh… wait here then.” Newt nodded and returned the smile, before turning around and walking towards the locker-room.

When he entered Minho was showering in one of the boots, and Newt went to the other room to get changed. Just as he was about to go back out to the pools, Minho stepped through the door and smirked at him. 

“So… what was all that staring about back there?” The asian boy leaned back against the lockers opposite Newt as he waited for an answer. 

“What staring?” Newt asked instead, trying to play dumb. “And please put your clothes on.” 

“Really? So when Thomas is stretching you stare like he’d grown a second head, but when I’m walking around in a towel you want me to put on clothes,” Minho said, trying to sound insulted. The smirk gave him away though, and Newt huffed. 

“I wasn’t staring at Thomas. And after being in your team for the last 9 years I’ve seen enough.” 

“Sure you weren’t loverboy,” Minho said and winked. Newt groaned in frustration and hurried towards the door to the pool, trying to suppress the redness of his cheeks. Although Minho was his best friend he could really be a pain in the ass. 

“See you later Min,” was all Newt said before closing the door behind him. 

 

When Newt walked down the stairs leading to the pools he heard the distinct sound of someone swimming. Looking up, he saw Thomas gently swimming backstroke the last few meters of the pool towards the edge, and then quickly turning to breaststroke in the next lap. Newt stopped and watched the boy swim from a distance, to decide what he was swimming. After Thomas’s next turn Newt came to the conclusion that the boy had to be practising 200 medley for the upcoming competition and Newt got a little sad when he realized that he’d missed Thomas swimming butterfly. It was his favourite part of medley to do, and to see. Thomas going in for his last freestyle part, sped up a little and in no time he slammed his hand into the wall of the pool. Taking off his swimcap and goggles he looked towards the stairs and both smiled and waved at Newt when he saw the boy. Newt smiled back and walked over to the edge which Thomas was swimming up to. Newt giggled a bit when he saw the state Thomas hair was in. Granted, the swimcap never looked good on anyone, but the hair afterwards was hilarious. 

“What?” Thomas looked confused, putting up his arms on the edge to rest. Apparently, he hadn’t been thinking about his hair. 

“Your hair's a mess after the cap. Why did you even put it on again?” When realisation dawned on Thomas face Newt couldn’t help but to laugh harder. 

“I uh… I don’t know it’s-” he stammered out, looking rather sheepish. Finally he gave up on explaining, laughing as well and raking a hand through his hair. “Shut up,” Thomas chuckled before dunking his head under the surface and dragging it up slowly to smooth his hair down. Newt stopped laughing instantly as his eyes were drawn to Thomas neck. While the boy in question leaned his head back he exposed his neck, which unsurprisingly was littered in moles as well. Water trickled down to his collarbone and continued further down to where Newt couldn’t see due to the edge. He looked back up to Thomas hair which looked considerably better than before, only to find that the other boy was suddenly looking right at him, his whiskey-eyes staring right into his. Newt felt like he was thrown back to Saturday in Thomas bedroom, staring at each other, leaning closer… Newt abruptly looked away, breaking the eye contact. Thomas cleared his throat and pushed off the edge, but held out his hand.

“Do you want some help?” Newt hesitated for a moment, but took the offered hand. When he jumped into the pool he tried to ignore the tingling in his body, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t caused by the water this time. They were quiet while they walked around the pool, neither sure if they should break the silence or not. It didn’t take long for Newt to get water up to his belly this time, and he already had his hands in the water. He felt proud, especially since he didn’t have to hold Thomas’ hands this time, although he kind of missed it. Suddenly Thomas spoke, dragging Newt out of his head. 

“Do you want to pause here for a while?” Thomas was smiling slightly, but he looked a bit nervous. Newt could only imagine it was because he had been thinking about Saturday as well but he let it be. 

“Yeah sure.” 

Neither said anything, not sure what to say, and it was starting to become awkward when Thomas spoke up again. 

“About earlier…” Thomas looked at Newt who nodded slowly, not sure what he was referring to. “In the classroom after the chemistry lesson.” 

_ Fuck _ , Newt thought. He’d hoped that if he just kept quiet Thomas wouldn’t bring it up but it seemed like he had no such luck. He sighed and lifted his hand to bite at his thumbnail, but dropped it when he realised he’d have to talk. 

“It’s… my mum.” It felt weird to tell Thomas this. He’d only ever told Jorge, Minho and Brenda, but even telling them had taken years. He’d known Thomas for way less time than that, and been friends with him for even less. But at the same time it felt good, almost natural to talk to Thomas. Newt had been over this before, many times, but it still baffled him slightly. Before continuing he glanced up at Thomas, who looked at him intently. The guy could probably barely contain his curiosity, but he waited for Newt to tell him in his own pace and Newt appreciated it. 

“She’s been hard to be around because she drinks a lot.” Newt was looking down at his feet through the water. “I was there this weekend to tell her that I’ll be staying at Jorge’s place for the time being, and she got mad.” He went quiet, and surprisingly Thomas didn’t say anything straight away. Newt slowly glanced up at Thomas to see him staring right back. They looked at each other for a while before Thomas opened his mouth to speak, but Newt cut him short.

“I don’t want to talk more about this. We can go deeper now.” He started to walk forwards, but Thomas grabbed his arm and stopped him. 

“Newt, hold on.” Thomas made Newt turn around and face him, and Newt let him. “I’m so-”

“Don’t say you’re bloody sorry when you have nothing to do with this,” Newt bit out. He regretted it as soon as he’d said it, because he could feel Thomas grip on his arm falter. “I mean… it’s not your fault. And you wanted to know so now you know.” After a few more moments of silence Newt moved to pull away, but Thomas gripped his arm tighter and before Newt knew it he was pulled into a hug. His heart picked up in speed and he could feel his face heat up. Thomas had dried since his training earlier, but his skin and hair was still damp and he smelled of chlorine. Without thinking about it Newt put his arms around Thomas waist to reciprocate the hug. 

“That sucks Newt,” Thomas whispered after a while. Newt laughed humorlessly at the comment.

“Yeah, it kind of does.”

“I’m just glad you get to stay at Jorge’s place.” Thomas grip around him tightened slightly before he continued.  

“If not you could have moved to my place. We have an extra bedroom and my parents wouldn’t mind I mean they love people and the more the merrier like-”

“Tommy,” Newt said, cutting the rambling boy off. “I have a place to stay, it’s fine.” Thomas nodded into Newt’s shoulder before breaking the hug and smiling at him. 

“Okay, do you want to continue then?” Newt nodded and they started to walk deeper. In some odd way his heart felt lighter than before. 

 

The practice went on much slower after that, but with more progress than Saturday. Slowly Newt had gotten water up to his collarbones with almost even breathing. Thomas was looking right at him and Newt looked back. The intense staring took his mind of the water and creeping feeling in his skin, but it lingered either way. 

“Is it getting better,” Thomas asked and took his hand under the water. It relaxed Newt even more and he felt his shoulders drop slightly.

“Yeah a bit. I just… need to breath.” Thomas nodded and Newt took a few deep breaths. He wasn’t deep under the surface, but he could feel the water closing in around his chest, making the air feel heavy in his lungs. After a few minutes where Newt kept taking deep breaths Thomas gently pulled Newt to the shallower part of the pool where the water only reached his belly. 

“I was calming down,” Newt grumbled once Thomas let go of his hand. He crossed his arms, but Thomas gentler response made him drop them again.

“Sure you were.” 

“Was that sarcasm?” Newt laughs at Thomas guilty smile, whilst shaking his head. “Minho is rubbing off on you.” The dark haired boy gasps and puts a hand over his heart. 

“First you bet on Brenda, and now this?” Newt laughs even harder and Thomas joins in too. Once they both have calmed down Thomas points towards the deep end of the pool and reaches for Newt’s hand slightly.

“Do you want to try again?” Still smiling slightly, Newt takes the outstretched hand and nods. 

 

The two boys end up going back and forth 3 times before Newt is able to breath properly, but before he can get discouraged Thomas makes a joke or starts to tease him, and before Newt knows it he’s back in the deeper end. By now it was getting dark outside, but neither of the boys took notice. Newt was trying to get his head under the surface, but when he felt the water come closer to his face his mind freaked out and he stood up. 

“You’re thinking too much about it,” Thomas said when Newt stood up for what must have been the tenth time. He was losing his patients now, and Thomas saw it. 

“Then what am I supposed to do? I can’t just shut my brain off,” Newt spat. His breathing was picking up slightly but this time it was due to the anger more than anything else. 

“Try to think about something else. Like uh… whatever, a happy memory.” Thomas had gotten agitated by Newts mood and he felt slightly guilty, but they had been here for hours and both were tired. He sighed but nodded as he tried to pick a good memory. 

There was this one competition a few years ago. It hadn’t been a big one and it had been set up mostly for fun, but he, Minho and Brenda had all ended up on the podium together. He couldn’t recall which one of them had been in what place, but it didn’t matter. The rush of happiness they’d all felt when the team came up to them had been amazing, and the picture taken that day hung on Newt’s wall at home. 

The tension in his body melted away and he almost found himself smiling. Thomas noticed instantly and took his hand. 

“Let’s try one more time,” he said and squeezed Newt’s hand. Newt nodded and took a deep breath, before they slowly lowered themselves into the water. It was cool against his neck, and once he felt his chin going under the surface he thought back to when they took the picture together with the team. They had pushed up the three of them to the first step  and surrounded them all on second and third. The water reached up to just under his eyes now, and before he closed them he looked at Thomas who was staring right back. It felt like they stayed like that for just a second, looking at each other, before both boys submerged themselves completely. 

 

It almost felt like being weightless. The water felt cool, soft and familiar against his skin, and it calmed him more than anything had in months. If it hadn’t been for Thomas hand in his own he would have thought he was completely alone in the water. Newt squeezed Thomas hand before standing up.

As soon as he broke the surface he gulped in a deep breath of air. Thomas followed right after him, and laughed.

“You did it!” Newt laughed as well, trying to process what Thomas was telling him. After almost a year he had finally managed to calmly get completely under water. It felt like his chest was going to burst with joy, and without thinking he threw himself at Thomasin a hug, sending both of them stumbling back under the surface. Water engulfed them once again, but this time it was more chaotic. Newt didn’t have time to close his eyes and he saw the white foam all around them, along with the feeling of Thomas arms around him. The serene calm from before was gone and Newt quickly pushed the other boy away. Once he broke the surface he felt himself calming down again.

“Are you okay Newt?” The boy in question jumped a little when Thomas spoke. Newt hadn’t even noticed him resurface, too caught up in his own head.

“Yeah, yeah… It just got a bit chaotic, I’m fine.” Newt dragged a hand through his hair to get it out of his eyes before moving to the edge of the pool. 

“That was a pretty good tackle you did-” Thomas said but Newt cut him off.

“Sorry about that. I shouldn’t have, it made us both fall.” He could feel his cheeks heat up 

“No, it’s okay I meant that-” 

“I have to go, it’s getting late.” 

With that Newt hurried to the locker room and left a confused Thomas behind. 

 

***

 

Thomas was still in shock when he left the pool and headed towards the locker room. Both because Newt finally got his head under the surface, and because of the sudden flow of emotion from the blonde when he came up from the water. Newt had rushed off rather quickly right afterward, so Thomas was a little hesitant when he stood in front of the entrance. He was a bit afraid that he would walk in on an emotional moment for Newt. After a few more minutes of hesitation he opened the door and walked in. The door squeaked higher than usual when Thomas tried to open it a little slower, and it made Thomas groan on the inside. Since the squeaking door had already given him away he decided to just walk in. Hearing shuffling from the lockers, Thomas slowly made his way past the showers. There, he could feel the dampness in the air which meant that someone had used one of the showers very recently. He stopped to see if anyone was in there, but when he realized that no one was he continued towards the lockers. Passing through the doors he now heard sounds from across the room that either was someone mumbling to themselves or just muffled swear words, Thomas couldn't really decide. He walked along the rows of lockers trying to be as subtle as possible, and because of this almost trips on his own feet every second step. The sounds became more and more clear when Thomas closed in on Newt, and it turned out that it was a mix of cursing and mumbling. 

Just when Thomas rounds the corner of the last row of lockers the blonde crashed into him. All he sees as they fall is blonde hair and a pair of hands, and it takes all of his concentration to not crush Newt when they fall to the ground. A second later the two of them are lying on the floor, with Thomas on top of a very red Newt, who’s clutching the towel around his waist for dear life. They stare at each other for a while before Newt awkwardly clears his throat. But before Newt is able to talk his way out of the situation, Thomas decided that he’d had enough. Without meaning to, he spoke out loud. 

“Fuck it.” he said and started to close the gap between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little longer chapter, just to make up for not posting before christmas. We hope you’ve enjoyed and please leave a comment with your thoughts, it’s really appreciated. Cheers guys <3


	9. chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! As you've noticed slow updates has become a thing, and though we're both sad that is the case we probably wont be able to change that for a while :( Both of us have a lot of school and one of us (hello) will have a lot of outside-of-school essays before and during summer. But we hope you all like this chapter because we sure do! ;)

When their lips collided Thomas quickly closed his eyes, taking in the moment. At first Newt stayed completely still, but after just seconds he relaxed and started kissing Thomas back. It was slow and sweet and Thomas couldn’t really comprehend what really was happening. When Thomas backed away and opened his eyes, he saw that Newt’s eyes still was closed. Thomas smiled and watched the blonde as he slowly opened his eyes, looking directly into his own with as much emotion a look could give. Then it hit Thomas like a truck. He’d just kissed one of his best friends, the boy who he’d slowly and steadily fallen in love with for a while now. It was overwhelming, and he needed to close his eyes once more to really savour the moment. He was smiling and let out a small laugh, once more opening his eyes to look down on Newt. But when he did, he found a look in Newt’s eyes that he couldn’t describe. The smile on Thomas’s face quickly fell and was exchanged for a frown when the blonde started looking around them, looking for a way out. Thomas stood up and let Newt go, just to watch the flustered blonde scramble to get up and quickly pull on a pair of pants, mumbling excuses as he grabbed the rest of his stuff. Thomas just stood there paralyzed wishing that there was something he could do, but nothing reasonable came to mind. Just when Newt was about to disappear out of the door Thomas grabbed his wrist, making Newt look up at the brunette.    
“Wait, Newt -” Thomas finally managed to get out. The blonde just turned his head and pulled his wrist away from Thomas and ran out the door. 

 

Pulling on some warmer clothes over his swimshorts he hurried out the door, running after Newt. The chill autumn air hit his face when he got outside. He couldn’t see Newt, but he knew that he couldn’t have gotten that far yet. 

“Newt? Newt, come on we need to talk about this!” he yelled to make sure that Newt could hear him. Frantically spinning his head to make sure that he didn’t miss if Newt moved somewhere, he decided to continue searching for the boy until he found him. Seeing something moving across the road he started sprinting towards it. He crossed the road without thinking, and when a car that was closing in on him honked at him, he jumped a little. 

“Shit.” He shook it off and continued running down the street, away from the pools. Catching up with the person on the other side he realized that it just was a blonde man walking his dog. Totally lost and with the swimshorts dampening his pants he started to shiver from the cold. He had no idea where Newt could’ve run. He maybe went to the same place as he did when they just met earlier this summer, and Thomas hadn’t seen him for days after that. He decided to call Jorge to see if Newt had returned home, but when Jorge let him know that he hadn’t Thomas got even more concerned. Newt hadn’t had a lot of clothes with him and Thomas was sure that he easily would catch a horrible cold in this weather if he didn’t get inside somewhere quickly. Remembering that Minho and Newt had been friends for a really long time and probably knew all of each others hiding places he decided to call the raven haired boy. When Minho answered and told Thomas that Newt couldn’t have gotten anywhere like that, because he didn’t have access to his mums car anymore. Ending the call, Thomas didn’t have any ideas to where Netw could be left. He continued to run around the blocks closest to the pools yelling his name for about half an hour, but it didn’t help. Giving up, he decided to get home and change.    
  
When he got home, he quickly changed and flopped down on the bed. He was going to be home alone for about two more hours before his dad got home. His mom had just left for her shift and wouldn’t be home until the next morning. He decided to call his best friend to get some advice about what to do. Dialing Teresa’s number he thought about what to tell her about what had happened. 

“Hey Tom, everything ok?” She said when she picked up. Without Thomas even letting out a word, she somehow knew that there was something off. 

“No, not really.” He sighed and buried his face in his pillow. 

“Wanna talk about it?” Her voice was kind and understanding, and very worried. 

“I just… I don’t know what’s happening I…” Thomas trailed off. He really didn’t know what to say. 

“Okay, we’re gonna do it like this. Meet me at the playground by the park in fifteen minutes, we can talk there.” She was determined and soft at the same time and Thomas nodded. When he realized that she couldn’t see him he spoke. 

“Yeah okay, thanks T”

“Always.” Then she ended the call. 

 

***

 

Newt almost tripped in his haste to get away. Only when he was outside of the building and hidden behind a dumpster on the back did he pause to pull on his shoes. Maybe putting them on just now had been a bad idea, seeing how winter was getting close. It was cold and he wished he’d spent a few seconds drying off but he wasn’t going back inside now. Newt didn’t know why he’d bolted, but when Thomas had kissed him he’d panicked and the most natural thing to do had been running away.  There was a loud banging, and Newt quickly pressed up against the wall and held his breath. 

“Newt? Newt, come on we need to talk about this!” Thomas was yelling on the other side of the building, but Newt stayed put. He didn’t want to talk about anything. After a few minutes he heard Thomas swear and run away. Slowly he poked his head around a corner and saw Thomas run across the road, flinching as a car honked at him, but he just ignored it and continued to run. Newt let out a sigh of relief when Thomas rounded a corner and was out of sight. A gust of wind made him shiver and he hurried back to the door, slinking inside the building. Once he was inside he locked the doors and slumped against a wall. He knew Thomas probably wouldn’t come back tonight, and he felt himself relax slightly. Slowly he made his way back to the locker-room to dry off. 

Once he was dry he remembered that Thomas was probably still running around outside looking for him. He probably didn’t even dry off, much like Newt hadn’t done. It was cold outside, and windy, and Newt felt guilt settling in the pit of his stomach. What if Thomas got sick because of this? He was tempted to call Thomas, tell him where he was and make sure the other boy warmed up, but he suppressed it. And besides, Thomas was a smart guy, he’d give up as soon as he got too cold and go home, he’d be okay. 

 

***

 

As Thomas approached the swingset on the playground not far away from Teresa’s house, he managed to crack a small smile. The raven haired girl was upside down on the monkeybars with her long hair almost touching the ground. Thomas took a seat on one of the swings and watched her as she climbed down. She somehow got her foot stuck between two of the bars, which made her fall to the ground when she finally managed to get it out. Teresa fell face first into the sand, making Thomas chuckle. She quickly stood up, brushing the sand off her face and gave him a glare that possibly could kill. 

“You saw nothing. You hear me? Nothing.” Thomas couldn’t keep the laugh inside anymore, and almost fell off the swing laughing when she rolled her eyes dramatically. She walked up to him and sat down on the swing next to him.    
“So, what’s the deal?” The laugh quickly faded away and Thomas looked down on his shoes. 

“I kissed him.”

“And?” 

“And he ran away and I couldn’t find him. I searched for almost an hour.” He looked up at Teresa and saw the same confusion in her eyes as he felt inside. She was silent for a solid minute before she furrowed her brows and opened her mouth, just to close it again. She spoke up after some more silence.

“He really did that?” Thomas just sighed and looked down again, kicking some of the sand underneath his shoes around. When he didn’t respond to her she looked up on the sky that was darkening and sighed. “Let’s get back to my place and play some videogames and talk if you feel like it. Sounds okay?” The idea of sitting with his back against the side of T’s bed and playing mario-kart both felt relaxing and really stressful, with Newt still out there he knew that he’d never be able to fully concentrate. But he’d searched and he was getting tired, and mario kart was always fun, so he nodded and rose from the swing. While Thomas had been contemplating his answer Teresa had started swinging beside him and easily jumped off the swing when she saw him nod. The started walking towards Teresas house and a conversation slowly made it’s way to them. 

 

When they got home and flopped down on Teresa’s huge bed, switching on the TV, Thomas started to worry about Newt once more. Teresa was already deep within the new episode of some crime show she watches, so she didn’t notice how he was fidgeting with his watch and biting his nails. Twenty five minutes passed and Thomas really didn’t feel at ease at all. He checked his phone for the thousandth time this night, just to see that there still was no responses to the messages he’ve written. Throwing the phone onto the bed behind them, Thomas felt like he couldn’t sit still anymore. He had to  _ move _ . So he got up, started walking towards the door to Teresa’s room, mumbled something that was supposed to sound like goodbye to her and got out.  

 

When he finally was outside on the street, he looked up the lit up street towards the playground. He then turned around and started running. He ran down the street and turned onto the next one when he reached the end of it. He looked up as he ran and watched the stars in between the passing street lights and quietly wished upon them that Newt was warm and safe. After a while of running, cursing and maybe some tears he felt like his lungs were going to explode. So he stopped, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again he realized that his legs had taken him towards the pools and that he was almost there. So naturally, he continued walking towards the big buildings where the pools were located. His heart jumped at least ten feet in his chest when he saw that some of the lights by the pools still were on. And even though his chest and legs protested he started running again, towards the big windows where the lights were. Stopping right in front of the glass door Thomas saw him standing with his back towards him by the edge of the pool, so Thomas rapidly knocked on the door in hope to be let in. 

 

***

 

Newt was laying on his back next to the pool with his feet dangling over the edge and in the water. At first it had felt like the water was close to boiling, due to his cold feet, but now it had the usual cool temperature. He didn’t know how long he’d been laying like this, but it didn’t matter. Thanks to everything that was running through his head he knew he wasn’t getting up anytime soon. 

When Thomas first kissed him, Newt had been surprised. It felt like it came out of nowhere, but once his brain had caught up with the situation, Newt had practically melted into it. When Thomas pulled away it still felt unreal, and he didn’t want to open his eyes in case it turned out to be a dream. Suddenly Thomas had laughed, and it was like being punched in the gut and thrown back to when they’d been interrupted by Catherine. Had Thomas really laughed at him though? Now, when he had calmed down, Newt wasn’t so sure about that anymore. What if Newt had overreacted? Once again he was tempted to pick up the phone and just call Thomas, but he didn’t. After how he behaved he was pretty sure Thomas didn’t want anything to do with him, and even though it hurt, it was probably for the best. Thomas was kind and seemed to have his life together fairly good. He didn’t need Newt in it, because he would just drag him down and hold him back. It was already very evident that Newt couldn’t handle things well at all, ending up with him panicking, running away, or both. Today he’d done both. Then there was the whole thing with his mother, which never seemed to get better. He groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes. So yes, this was all for the best. 

It had gotten dark outside by now and stars were glinting through the window. That along with the almost blue lights from the pool made the whole room seem so calm. It reminded him of all the late nights he’d spent here alone, and before that, all the nights he’d spent here with Minho and Brenda. Lately he’d been thinking a lot about that, but they were his favourite memories after all. A smile tugged on his lips when he thought about how Minho somehow had gotten into the security room and managed to play music through the loudspeakers, and how mad Jorge had been when he arrived after getting 7 separate phone calls concerning the noise. Newt let his feet swing back and forth, and let his thoughts wander, and of course they ultimately landed at Thomas. He’d helped him so much, and somehow managed to squeeze himself into Newt’s life without him noticing. Worry soon followed the thoughts of Thomas. Where was he even now? Hopefully he wasn’t still out looking, it had been a few hours since Newt bolted. But Thomas was stubborn, evidently, and had he even taken the time to dry off? What if he was still out there, looking for him, while Newt himself was still at the pools. Newt stood up and went over to his phone. He should text Thomas and tell him he was safe, and make sure Thomas was too. But he’d decided to cut him off just a few minutes ago. Frustrated, he dropped the phone back to the floor without unlocking it.

Just as he did though, there was a knock on the door on the other side of the pool, making Newt jump. He turned around and was hit with deja vu as he saw Thomas standing on the other side of the glas waving his arms at him and talking, but he couldn’t hear what he said. Relief flooded through him as he saw that Thomas was dry and okay, but the knot in his gut was soon back. Why was he back here? Although he was glad to see Thomas he wasn’t ready to talk to him. He still couldn’t hear him but by now Thomas had moved on to what seemed like rambling and making a praying motion with his hands. 

“Fuck it,” Newt said before forcing himself to walk over to the door. As soon as Newt had unlocked it Thomas pushed it open and stepped inside. They were both silent before Newt felt like opening his mouth and speak, but Thomas beat him to it. 

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have forced myself onto you like that, I should have understood that that was literally the worst moment to try a stunt like that, like you didn’t even have clothes on I can’t imagine how awkward that must’ve been for you. I’m such an  _ idiot _ .” Thomas kept on rambling but Newt just stared. Newt had literally bailed on Thomas and made him run outside in late autumn without a chance to dry up and Thomas was apologising? Newt wanted to punch and hug him, but decided on the later, cutting off Thomas rambling by squeezing the shorter boy in a hug. 

“You’re too nice for your own good, you know that? I’m sorry that I ran out like that.” Thomas hadn’t responded the hug yet and when Newt realised that he pulled back. He was surprised to see the other boy just standing there opening and closing his mouth, as if he didn’t know what to say. 

“Tommy?” That seemed to make Thomas come back to reality. He locked eyes with Newt and nodded towards the edge of the pool.

“We should sit down and talk.” 

“Uh yeah.” Newt felt his cheeks heat up and he hurried over to the edge to sit down. Had he read this all wrong? Why was this so complicated? 

Thomas sat down next to him and glanced over at him.

“So… we’ve both apologised,” he started. Newt nodded in confirmation and they fell silent for a minute. Maybe Newt shouldn’t have let him in this is just awkward for both of them.

“Why did you run out?” Thomas finally said and turned to face Newt fully. “I get that I made you uncomfortable but why didn’t you stay to tell me why? I thought we started to become good friends.” At first Newt could just stare. It felt like something was stuck in his throat, making him unable to answer. Thomas looked genuinely hurt yet desperate to understand and it made the guilt tie a tighter knot in his stomach. 

“I… I panicked. You laughed at me and I felt stupid.”

“What? Newt, why would you think I laughed  _ at  _ you?” 

“You did back at your place when your mum interrupted us, and now you laughed again. I just… I don’t know I just panicked. I’m sorry.” Newt looked down on his feet through the water and he could feel the look Thomas was giving him. 

“I have never ever laughed at you.” Thomas said, and it sounded sincere. “I laughed back at my place because it got kind of awkward and I was so embarrassed on behalf of my mum. She’s the one that ruined the whole moment we had back there.”

“Really?” Newt had a hard time believing what he just heard, but decided to, for once, actually believe in what someone said instead of doubting everything and everyone. 

“Yeah, really.” Thomas reassured him.

They were both quiet for a while, looking out over the calm water, dangling their legs in the water. Newt was almost surprised when Thomas started talking again. 

“Do you regret it?”

“Huh?”  

“The kiss I mean.” They looked at each other and Newt took a deep breath before answering. 

“Not really. Actually I’ve wanted to kiss you for a while.” At that Thomas face turned slightly pink and Newt was sure his own face was too. “But I regret that I ran out like that. I should have stayed and just asked you, I’m such an idiot and-”   
“Don’t say that,” Thomas interrupted him. “Like… it’s understandable that you ran out. You’re not stupid because of it.” They stared at each other again, Newt slightly shocked and Thomas determined. Newt quickly got his bearings back and smiled at the boy in front of him.

“If I’m not an idiot then you’re not either.” Both boys chuckled and Thomas bumped his shoulder into Newt’s. 

The air around them had shifted from the tense and slightly awkward feeling it had held earlier, and now Newt felt himself relax. Thomas seemed to do the same as his shoulder didn’t leave Newt’s. 

“Hey, Newt?” The boy in question leaned back slightly too look Thomas in the eye.

“Mhm?” 

“Before you said that uh… you wanted to kiss me.” The pink that had dusted Thomas cheeks before had now turned astonishingly red. Newt could only nod slowly in response as Thomas continued.

“Would you... want to do it now? I understand if you don’t I mean I did force myself on you earlier and just… Yeah I thought I could ask.” Thomas cleared his throat once he was done and looked anywhere but at Newt.

“Yes.” That made Thomas head whipped back around to Newt again. 

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah, really.” Thomas’ eyes widened and he laughed before cutting himself off with a horrified expression. 

“Oh no I did it again, Newt I’m-” 

“It’s okay,” Newt whispered as he leaned closer. He was doing this for real now. His heart felt like it would burst through his chest and his blood rushed in his ears. Was this a good idea? This was what he wanted, right? His eyes flickered up to Thomas’ and he saw the joy and slight fear hidden in them.  _ Yeah _ , he thought.  _ This is a great idea. _

Newt closed the final distance between them and slowly Thomas responded to the kiss, making waves of electricity run through Newt’s body. He let his hand tangle in Thomas hair and it seemed to be the only encouragement Thomas needed. The other boy’s hand found Newt’s hair and waist, pulling him closer, making the water in the pool splash up on their pants but they didn’t care. Newt angled his head so that their noses weren’t squished together and Thomas made a soft sound before both of them pulled away, smiling. 

“We should talk like this more often.” Thomas said, making Newt laugh slightly. 

“I agree.” This time Thomas leaned in, and Newt happily met him halfway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fucking finally, right? Again hope you liked this chapter, and please tell us if you did down in the comments, we'd love to hear your opinions and maybe ideas? Everything is welcome!<3  
> See you all next time :D


	10. chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, it’s been a while since we posted, ops. But now we are both on summer vacation, which means we’ll hopefully have time to post more chapters the coming months!
> 
> No TW’s in this chap!

An hour or so later and after many kisses and tender, lingering touches they decided that it was time to get home. Thomas couldn’t believe that this tall lanky gorgeous blonde boy actually liked him, and it made his heart flutter every time he thought about it. They slowly let each others faces go and stood up to leave. As they walked up the stairs to the changing rooms Thomas took one more risk, he slowly stretched out his hand and took Newt’s in his. He didn’t dare to look up at Newt just yet, so he let his eyes stay on their hands. When Thomas felt Newt relax into the touch he raised his eyes and was met with a warm dark brown gaze that made him feel at ease and smile. They kept their hands together during the whole walk home to Thomas’ place and smiled and squeezed their hands together a few times. Thomas had been afraid that Newt would let his hand go when they left the pools, but he kept it steady in Thomas’, even outside. The cool autumn air made their cheeks a little rosy during the short walk, and Thomas could only describe it as perfect. 

When they got home Thomas went inside quickly to grab his car keys and Newt waited by the car. Thomas came out and Newt was leaning against the car, so Thomas walked up to him and kissed him once more before unlocking the car and opening Newt’s door for him. When they finally was out on the road Thomas lowered the radio and just listened to Newt’s slow breaths and enjoyed the comfortable silence. His heart made a little flip when Newt’s left hand suddenly was resting on top of his right hand on the stick shift. When he settled down he stretched out his fingers and let their fingers lace together. Thomas finally broke the silence when they were halfway to Jorge’s house. 

“I wouldn’t mind doing this again sometime.” It was a shot in the dark, just to see if Newt really wanted this to continue. 

“Yeah, me neither actually” Newt answered rather sleepily, slowly caressing the back of Thomas’ hand with his thumb. This made Thomas even warmer and more fuzzy inside than he already was, so he lifted their hands to his mouth and slowly pressed a kiss on top of Newt’s warm hand. He looked over at the blonde when he did this, and Newt was smiling with half lidded eyes and a soft pink blush on his cheeks.  

The ride was over way too soon for Thomas’ liking, so when he slowed down outside of the house, he lingered a bit before untangling their fingers and opening the door to step out. He hurried out and around the car so that he could open the door for Newt. When he did, he saw the soft pink blush coming back to Newt’s cheeks as he stepped out of the car. Thomas mind went almost blank when he got a good look at the boy in front of him. His blonde toulosed hair was softly illuminated by the light from the porch and looked almost as if it was glowing in the dark night. His deep brown eyes was glittering from the excitement and hesitation and looked just like the butterflies in Thomas’ stomach felt. Thomas didn’t even realize that during this time he had pressed up Newt against the car, until he felt Newt’s soft hands in his hair. He lowered his gaze from Newt’s eyes to his lips and caught a glimpse of the faint freckles over his nose as he did. Newt’s lips were slightly parted and perfectly pink and Thomas couldn’t think about anything else than how they felt on his own. So just to remind him about it once more he closed the distance between them and pressed their lips together. Thomas’ hands found their way to Newt’s hips and his thumbs circled Newt’s hip bones through the thin fabric of his T-shirt. This time their kiss was more determined than the ones before, that were gentle pecks. The electricity that he felt down his spine made him dizzy and he knew that Newt felt it too when the boy softly moaned into the kiss. Thomas took this opportunity and deepened their kiss for the first time. He didn’t really know what he was doing, but it all felt so familiar and right so he just kept going. Newt tightened his grip of Thomas’ hair and Thomas took this as a good sign. Somewhere in the frenzy of feelings, tongues and closed eyes Thomas pressed in his thigh between Newt’s legs. The blonde moaned a little louder to this and kissed him back even harder. When they parted, their foreheads still resting against each other, Thomas huffed a laugh and smiled wide. He opened his eyes slightly and saw that Newt was doing the same thing, so he pecked him on the lips once more before lifting his head. 

“You should probably get inside” The blonde sighed but nodded in agreement. Before Newt let go of Thomas’ hair he pecked Thomas’ lips as to say thank you. They couldn’t let go of each other just yet, so Newt pulled Thomas into a close and intimate hug that lasted forever. The feeling of Newt’s arms around his neck and his face in the crook of his neck was almost as good as the feeling of Newt’s middle in his arms and his own face in the crook of Newt’s neck. The forever wasn’t nearly enough for Thomas, because as soon as Newt let him go he physically and emotionally felt the absence of him. Newt slowly rounded Thomas but paused right beside him and looked up. 

“G’night Tommy.” He whispered, making all the hairs on Thomas’ body stand up. 

“G’night Newt.” He whispered back. Then Newt started walking up the path to the porch and Thomas turned around and leaned against the car and watched him walk away. It hurt to see Newt walk away, but as soon as Newt turned around and smiled at him, it felt like the world was going to be okay again. When Thomas finally teared his eyes away from the boy he slowly rounded the car and opened the door. He looked up to see Newt standing on the porch and, just because he felt like it, he blew Newt a kiss and smiled. He then entered the car and started the engine, slowly drove down the street, only looking back at the house and Newt waving at him and felt the fuzziness in his stomach bubble up once more. 

 

***

 

Newt watched Thomas car speed away down the street, and stayed outside until the sound of the engine disappeared. The cool air helped him clear his head after what happened by the car. He was sure his hair stood out in odd places and his lips still tingled with the ghost of Thomas kiss. Before opening the door to the house Newt smoothed down his hair and took a deep breath in an attempt to appear calm, but as soon as he walked through the door he couldn’t help but to smile. The tv wasn’t on so he assumed both Jorge and Brenda had gone to bed, but once he walked into the kitchen he was proved wrong. 

“Brenda?” The girl in question jumped and dropped the pizza slice she’d taken from the fridge. 

“Don’t scare me like that Newt!” She huffed before bending down to pick up her pizza and promptly stuffing her mouth full. When Newt made a face she shrugged. “Five second rule.”

“Okay…” Newt walked past her and over to the sink to get a glas of water before heading to bed.    
“Why are you home so late?” 

“I was at the pool,” Newt answered, not sure whether he should tell her everything or not. 

“Did you get a ride home?” Brenda jumped up on the counter and sat in front of Newt. “I thought I saw Thomas car when I came downstairs.” Newt figured she had only seen the car pull up to the house and felt slightly grateful for that.

“Uh yeah, he gave me a ride.” 

“Really? What were the two of you doing by the pools this late then?” The whole conversation they’d had came flooding back, and the hour of kissing that followed. He couldn’t stop the small smile from spreading. 

“We talked… and uh… we’re kind of a thing. I think.” When Newt looked at Brenda he wasn’t sure what he was expecting but a scowl wasn’t it.

“And you’re comfortable with that?” Newt took a swig from his glass and nodded.

“Yeah. I like him, a lot. And well… he’s nice you know?” Newt scratched his neck and finally Brenda smiled at him. 

“I’m happy for you.” She got off the counter and gave him a hug which he gladly returned. “Also, we’re calling Minho!” Brenda took off like a shot up the stairs to her room and her phone waiting on the nightstand. 

“Wha- Brenda wait!” Newt hurried after as quietly as possible as to not wake Jorge, but once he got to her room she was already on the phone with Minho.    
“Oh oh, here he is, I’ll hand him the phone now!” Brenda gave him the phone and he sighed before putting it to his ear. 

“So what’s going on, Brenda just tells me something really good happened.” Minho sounded giddy, almost like a kid.

“Why can’t this wait until tomorrow?” Newt sat down heavily on the bed, suddenly feeling extremely tired. The tingling was gone and with it his energy.   
“Because Brenda called me now and I want to know,” Minho stated as a matter of fact. 

“Okay, whatever. Me and Thomas are a thing kind of.” A squeal broke out from the other end and Newt pulled the phone away from his ear. 

“Fucking finally! I’ve noticed that you’ve both had the hots for each other for a while now.” Newt chuckled at that.

“And you didn’t tell me Tommy liked me too?” 

“You wouldn’t have believed me if I did. And aw, you already have a nickname for him! If you keep this pace up I’ll have to tell you not to make out in front of me.” Newt felt his face grow red as his mind was thrown back to the car. He stammered a bit before gaining control of his tongue. 

“Okay I’m tired, gonna go to bed now bye.” He clicked the end call button before Minho had the time to say anything and threw it at Brenda. She smirked at him but let him off the hook as he rushed to his own room. 

Once inside he threw himself on the bed, and let himself sink into the cool covers. His face was still burning from Minho’s comment and the replay of the car. He really hadn’t thought that was the direction things were taking tonight, but he liked it. The thought of being cornered like that scared him a bit, but with Thomas it was okay. He’d still felt a small lump in his throat, but he knew Thomas wouldn't’ hurt him. And once Thomas had started to kiss him all his worries fell away. It was a good distraction. 

 

***

 

As soon as Thomas came home he sprinted upstairs to his room, poking in his head in his parents bedroom on his way to announce that he was finally home again. His mom was fast asleep, and his dad was just barely awake waving sleepily at him when Thomas looked at him. Thomas softly closed their door again and walked over to his own bedroom and flung himself onto the soft and wide mattress. His cheek hurt from smiling so much, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop. He sighed happily, picked up his phone and dialed the familiar number one more time that night. 

“Shit Tom it’s fucking four am go to sleep you fucker.” Teresa sounded groggy and just a tad bit annoyed. 

“Hello to you too, why so happy and cheerful at this fine hour?” A little laugh escaped his lips when he heard her muffled groan. 

“Fuck you.” She sounded a little more awake by now and he could visualize her sitting up in her bed. “What the hell is going on at this hour in your life that you so promptly need to tell me? Oh wait. Shit. Is it Newt? Did something happen to him?” Thomas loved the concern that his friend was showing. 

“Well kinda, but nothing bad. He’s all good.” He said, still smiling

“Oh thank god. Then what is it?”

“Well, I found him on my way home from you, by the pools. And we talked a lot and well… We kissed again. For real this time T, I can’t stop smiling!” He was so excited to tell her, like it meant that it actually happened. He left the part of making out by the car unsaid, because that was just his and Newt’s thing. A squeal came from the other end of the line and he could tell that she was fully awake by now. 

“Omg Tom, that’s amazing!” She really sounded happy and it made Thomas all warm inside again. “May I go to sleep again now?” Teresa said with a yawn. The cute sound made Thomas chuckle. 

“Yeah, fine. For this time.”

“We can talk more tomorrow. You can pick me up before practise, we both need to leave early anyway.”

“Yes, that sounds like an idea. I’ll pick you up a bit before six then?” 

“Sounds good. But you have to sleep now then, get at least one hour of sleep.”

“Goodnight T”

“Good morning Tom”

 

Thomas fell asleep not long after they ended the call, with his clothes still on and phone in his hand. One and a half hour later his dad knocked on his door and dragged him out of bed and downstairs and basically injected coffee right into Thomas’ blood to make him wake up. It worked and Thomas was soon on his way to pick up Teresa. When he pulled up beside her house she was just walking through the door and smiled at him when she turned around. Well in the car she sat down and squished his face and kissed his cheek before fastening her seatbelt and telling him to go before they were late. The car ride wasn’t as talkative as they thought it would be, they were both still half asleep. 

Practise went by smoothly except some incidents when Thomas and Brenda was about  to fall asleep in the water, and Minho actually taking a powernap somewhere. When practise was over Jorge saved them all by having coffee brought to the pools, “just in case anyone decided to fall asleep, AGAIN” which was followed with glances towards Fry, who just shrugged. When they finally arrived in school they were all late for their lessons, so Thomas just caught a glimpse of his golden boy in the hallway and waved at him while passing by from afar. The lessons before lunch passed by slowly and the short breaks in between lessons were filled with glances and whispers about what had happened between him and Newt the night before. These whispers were mostly between Minho, Brenda and of course Teresa who, apparently, all three knew what was going on. He and Newt bumped into each other for the first time just before lunch, and everyone looked expectantly at the two of them. This made Newt blush, but Thomas decided that he didn’t care about the others and stepped up beside Newt and put an arm around his waist and continued to talk to the others. He felt Newt tense up at first and he was about to remove his hand when the blonde relaxed and leaned into the touch. They ate lunch together, almost all of them. The only ones that were missing from their gang was Alby, Zart and Winston who thomas thought were busy with the yearbook. Thomas and Newt sat close together and their legs were tangled together under the table, breathing in each others presence. The bell than rang and broke their spell, sending them both off to finish up the school day, but not without Thomas gently pressing a light kiss on Newt’s cheek before they parted. 

 

***

 

Newt hurried to his locker after the last lesson. He didn’t want to miss the bus and since it was practice for the others after school Minho couldn’t drive him. He was slamming it shut just as he heard someone call out his name. Turning towards the voice he saw Thomas waving at him further down the corridor. Instantly a small blush crept up his neck and Newt walked to meet him halfway. Thomas threw an arm around him once they got close enough and Newt responded with an arm around Thomas waist. 

“How was your lesson,” Newt asked when they started walk out the school.

“It was okay, Jansson really doesn’t like me though.” Thomas winced and Newt laughed a bit. “Anyway, do you want to come with us to swim practice?” It was Newt’s turn to wince and Thomas gave him a look.

“No, I have stuff to do.” He could see how Thomas was about to say something but he beat him to it. “I have to catch a bus too, so I’m in a bit of a rush.” 

“Oh. Well I could drive you?” Thomas looked at him but Newt kept his eyes on the ground.     
“It’s far and you have practice tonight though.” 

“I can come a bit late, it’s okay. Besides, I know how to drive fast.” They had stopped walking and Newt was still trying to not look at Thomas. 

“No it’s fine. The bus won’t kill me,” he said in an attempt to lighten the mood but it didn’t work. 

“You can talk to me  you know,” Thomas said after a few seconds of silence. 

“Yeah, and I will. Just… I don’t want to explain this right now.” It was a poor excuse and Newt knew it, but it was the best he could think of right now. Besides, it was true. Thomas nodded and let Newt go.  

“Okay, but we could text later?” Finally Newt looked up, and saw Thomas smiling warmly at him, albeit slightly worriedly. Newt sighed in relief and smiled back. That instantly made the worry lessen in Thomas expression. 

“Sounds good.” They stood like that for a moment, smiling at each other, before Thomas started to lean in slowly. Newt stepped forward and put his hand on Thomas cheek and they met halfway. Newt’s face instantly felt warmer and he stepped even closer as Thomas put a hand on his waist. After a while he pulled away and was about to tell Thomas that he needed to catch the bus, but the other boy instantly kissed him again and Newt didn’t protest. Finally though, Thomas parted and Newt sighed. 

“Okay, you need to catch the bus.” Thomas said, but quickly gave Newt’s lips another peck. He nodded, but still they stole one last quick kiss. 

“I need to go now,” Newt said and started to back away. 

“Okay, bye.”

“Bye Tommy.” They smiled at each other as Newt walked away but soon enough Thomas started to walk back to the school. Once Newt arrived at the bus stop he didn’t have to wait long before he saw it turn the corner and he stepped on. 

 

The grass still hadn’t been cut, Newt thought as he walked up to the front door of the house. A quick glance to the right told him the neighbors hadn’t cut their grass in a while either, so he didn’t really feel that bad about it. He was about to open the door when he got second thoughts. This would definitely not be painless, and Newt still hadn’t prepared himself mentally. So instead of going right in, he walked over to the garage and pulled out the old lawn mower. The car was still in there, out of gas and neither he or his mum had enough money to fill it up again. He ignored it for now and got started on the front-yard. After about an hour he was done with both the front and back-yard, but he hadn’t caught sight of his mother in the windows. Now he had no excuse but to go inside or go home, and even though he wanted to leave, he took a deep breath and opened the door. 

Inside was the same mess as usual, only somewhat worse. 

“Mum? Are you here,” he called out. He really didn’t expect an answer but suddenly there was a soft yes from his own bedroom. Once he got there Newt saw her sitting in his bed, holding a frame. 

“Hi,” he said. 

“Hi.” Newt walked over and sat down beside her. Looking over her shoulder he saw that it was a photo of his father holding him as a baby. It surprised him, Newt didn’t have any memory of seeing that picture anywhere. He tried to repress the sour face he wanted to make. 

“You look so sweet in this picture. You couldn’t have been more than a couple of months old.”

“It doesn’t say at the back?” Lily shook her head and kept staring at the picture. Newt noticed how mad she still was at him, but she seemed okay otherwise. 

“Do you have food for the week, or is there anything you want me to get?” 

“I’m fine,” she answered almost instantly. 

“Okay.” They sat in silence after that, until finally his mother spoke. 

“I am sorry for the way I behaved. I promise it won’t happen again.” Her grip tightened around the frame and Newt bit his lip trying to figure out what to say.

“I know you’re sorry, I believe you. But you will probably do it again.” She inhaled sharply before she let the words pour out of her mouth. 

“But I didn’t drink at all since you were here last time and I did the dishes and-”

“Mum, I’m not finished.” At that she pulled her lips into a fine line, squeezing the frame so hard her knuckles turned white. 

“Getting well doesn’t just happen over a weekend, and even if it did I will still be staying at Jorge’s place for the rest of the year.”   
“I see.” When she didn’t continue Newt got worried. Was she going to throw another fit? He couldn’t help but to ask.

“Are you mad?”

“Yes.” She swallowed audibly and Newt saw tears building up in her eyes. “I want you to leave. Now.” There was no room for argument in her voice, so Newt just stood up and walked out of the room. 

It had started to rain since he got inside, and the cold spray of water slowly drenched his clothes as he made his way to the bus stop. A sudden buzz in his pocket grabbed his attention and he pulled out his phone to see who had texted him. As soon as he saw Thomas name on the small display he smiled. Tommy sure knew when to distract him. 

 

***

The week passed by slowly with a lot of schoolwork and sleepless nights for Thomas. It also passed by way too quickly with shared touches and reassuring kisses. A lot of time were spent by the pools making sure that Newt felt comfortable enough to soon be able to swim for real again. Thomas’ favorite moment of the week were when the two of them were just laying on his bed, cuddling. Most of the time Thomas was on his back and Newt had his head on Thomas’ chest, creating the perfect angle for thomas to pet the golden locks of Newt’s hair. 

Soon enough friday and the last lesson rolled around and everyone was as tired as they always were at this time of the week. Everyone gathered together outside of the school in the darkening autumn afternoon with scarves tightly wrapped around them and gloves tugged as far up as they got. Thomas and Newt stood closely together with Thomas’ arm around Newt’s middle. Teresa was going away over the weekend so she just quickly passed by and said her goodbyes to the group and disappeared over the parking lot. It made Thomas feel a little sad, since they lost their friday movie night for that week. The rest of them stayed behind for a while just to share everything that they hadn’t gotten to talk about by the pools. Fry, Winston and Zart soon took off to Fry’s to watch a movie, Brenda got picked up by Jorge a while later and Jorge raised a hand to greet the rest from the car. Alby, Aris and Gally also soon took off in opposite directions which left Thomas, Newt and Minho alone.    
“I better get going too.” Minho let out with a sigh after a while. “My parents are coming home tonight from their business trip so I have some stuff to do before that.” 

“Yeah, we’ll catch you later Min.” Newt said as they parted. 

“Bye Min.” Thomas said over his shoulder. He and Newt walked over to his car and before Thomas removed his arm Newt managed to bend over and kiss him on the cheek. The short ride home from school was pleasant with loud singing and laughs. When Thomas took the last turn into his street he realized that the spot in the driveway was occupied by an aged mercedes. He then looked around and a couple more cars were parked nearby, which he all recognized. 

“Oh shit.” he mumbled when he realized what was happening. 

“What’s happening?” Newt asked a little concerned.

“I totally forgot that they were coming over this weekend…” Thomas said still in some kind of shock. 

“Who’s here Tommy?” 

“My whole fucking family.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There, hope you all liked it! Please tell us what you thought down in the comments, and see you all next time <3


	11. chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Rollerblades into your house with a starbucks 5 months later* It's been a while. But we're back, still alive and still writing! We don't really have any excuse other than that school is very busy for both us, so uh sorry for that. But yeah here's chapter 11 and we hope you enjoy it!  
> No TW for this chapter other than that things get steamy (in case you hadn't noticed the rating ;))

Thomas parked the car a bit further away from the house than he had to, just to take the extra time to calm himself , and Newt for that matter, down. He vaguely remembered that his mom had mentioned that his family was coming over the phone earlier that week. The main reason why he couldn’t remember it clearly was because at that exact moment Newt had started kissing his way down Thomas’ neck. It had made Thomas’ mind go all cloudy, and his mother on the other end of the line hadn’t been his first priority. But now when they were walking towards the crowded house he wished he’d listened to his mother more carefully, but come on, who could blame him? He suddenly paused and turned to Newt who looked a little paler than usual. 

“Hey, are you okay?” Thomas asked taking Newt’s hand in his own and started caressing the back of his hand with his thumb. “You don’t have to do this you know?”

“I’m fine, really.” Newt answered looking down on their hands. “Just a little surprised that I’m meeting your family this quick, that’s all” Newt then looked up at Thomas and smiled a weak smile. 

“You know that I totally can drive you back right now? It’s okay if you don’t want to stay.” Thomas felt like he had to make sure that Newt knew that he wasn’t forcing him to meet most of his cousins, uncles and aunts. 

“It’s okay Tommy, I promise.” Newt leaned in and pressed a soft kiss on Thomas’ lips, which made all of Thomas’ worries go away. They continued their short walk into the yard hand in hand, but as soon as Thomas was about to open the door with his free hand Newt slipped away from him and moved to stand behind him. Thomas didn’t question this, since he knew that the blonde was a bit shy around new people. With a deep intake of breath he braced himself and opened the door. Luckily they hallway right inside was empty and many voices were coming from the livingroom. Both boys shrugged off their scarves, jackets and shoes and Thomas made his way into the living room not noticing that Newt no longer were by his side. When he rounded the corner into the big open space it was like he was being swallowed by the crowd. The first thing he noticed was a pair of short arms wrapping around his middle, and he instantly brought his hand up to the smaller boy’s incredibly curly hair. 

“Chuck, what’s up kiddo?” He exclaimed feeling Chuck’s hands withdraw and the boy took a step back. Both of them pulled up their hands and as an old routine made their secret handshake which ended with a double high five. 

“Hey Tom, I’ve missed you!” Chuck said while glancing up at Thomas. Thomas smiled and brought the boy in for another hug. 

“I’ve missed you too.” Thomas then turned to his grandma who, as always, pinched his cheeks as she greeted him. Other greetings with the rest of the family then rolled on, and just as Thomas had expected he was soon on the floor tackled down by Chuck. This might not be as bad as he originally thought. 

 

***

 

This was insane. He was insane, why hadn’t he left yet? Why had he agreed on staying? Thomas and him had only been a thing for about a week, and now here he was meeting Thomas whole family. Lucky for him, the kitchen was unoccupied, so when Thomas had been dragged into the living-room to be crushed by relatives, Newt had slinked back, quickly hiding by the fridge. But he couldn’t stay there forever, eventually someone would come into the kitchen and he’d be busted. He figured that if he left he could send Thomas a text saying he felt sick or something and that would be it. Just as he was going to start towards the door, Catherine walked into the kitchen. As soon as she saw him her face lit up in a smile. 

“Oh hi Newt! I didn’t see you coming in with Thomas, how are you?” 

“Hi Catherine. Uh…”  _ Tell her you’re sick and have to leave.  _ “I’m fine, and you?”

“I’m good! Why don’t you go out to and join Tom and the others, I’m going to heat up some pizzas Stephen picked up earlier today so I’ll be there soon.” Newt nodded and gave her a tight smile before walking towards the living-room instead of the door. He could do this, it was Thomas family after all, how bad could they be? 

As soon as he entered the living-room he could hear Thomas yelling. When Newt looked over he saw Thomas wrestling a kid about 13 years old. Both were yelling and laughing hysterically, and the rest of the kids were egging them on. Newt looked on with a fond expression, but his attention was broken when someone spoke. 

“Hello.” Newt turned to the voice and saw a middle aged lady look up at him from where she was sitting. She looked a lot like Catherine, and he guessed they were siblings. 

“Um, hi…” Suddenly all eyes were on him and he could feel his cheeks heating up. 

“Who’re you?” the man next to the woman asked and by now Thomas had gotten up off the floor and stood next to him.

“I’m Newt…” He cut himself off, not sure if Thomas wanted to share their relationship yet. It was still very new and Newt himself wasn’t even sure yet. Thomas, who apparently was close enough to hear their conversation stood up from the mountain of kids that currently were on top of him on the floor and walked over. Newt felt much calmer and safer when Thomas now stood by his side and protectively put an arm around his waist. 

“Aunt Kristeen, uncle Robert, this is my boyfriend Newt.” Thomas said calmly to the pair in front of them. That simple comment made Newt’s head spin and if it weren’t for  _ his boyfriend’s  _ arm around him he surely would have passed out. But Thomas kept him grounded and Newt managed to show the happiness he felt through a wide smile. The smile was short-lived, because suddenly the whole room erupted.

“Your boyfriend?” a cousin asked.

“That’s fantastic!” someone exclaimed.

“He’s tall.” another said. Newt looked over at Thomas who was smiling broadly, looking right back at him. The chatter went on until someone yelled at them to sit down. Space was made in one of the big couches and Thomas walked them both over. As soon as they did the aunt, probably Kristeen, leaned over and smiled. 

“Tell us, how did you meet?” The entire family seemed to edge closer and Newt felt himself sweat. That story actually wasn’t one he’d like to share. 

“Well um…” Thomas started, once again looking at Newt, who in turn held his breath. “We go to the same school, and he just came by swimming practise one day. A mutual friend introduced us.” Newt glanced at Thomas and gave a small smile, happy Thomas hadn’t shared anything Newt didn’t want him to. 

“Why do you even like Thomas, look at him,” a kid with a head full of curls exclaimed. Thomas squawked at the comment and Newt snorted. He had started to feel more comfortable and decided to play along. 

“Well… He’s not half-bad,” Newt said, while smirking at Thomas. Thomas turned to Newt smiling, but tried to play grumpy. Before he had a chance to respond one of the uncles gasped.

“You’re british!” The chatter started up again, and questions came flying Newts way. 

“Hey, hey! One at a time, god.” Thomas leaned back in the couch. If this had been Newt’s family he would’ve too. Everyone murmured out a sorry before an uncle spoke up. 

“Where in England are you from?” 

“From the south, close to Wales. I moved when I was a baby though, so I don’t remember a lot.” Newt thought back to the times his mum talked about England and how she’d wanted to move back one day. She never talked about that anymore.    
“You never went to visit you family there,” the same uncle asked. Newt hesitated a bit before simply shaking his head as an answer. 

“Why didn’t you?” Newt looked at the curly haired boy who sat at the floor in front of them. 

“I uh… I don’t know.” He started biting his thumbnail. The feeling of being comfortable was gone and replaced with the nervosity growing in his stomach. 

Thomas put his arm around him, and Newt thankfully leaned into him. Suddenly someone groaned and the whole family turned towards the culprit. 

“What are you making such a fuss about?” The woman who sat next to the man asked while frowning. He sighed and looked over at Thomas and Newt.    
“Nothing, nothing just… do you two have to flaunt it?” At that everyone in the room groaned, save for a few confused kids who asked what was going on. Newt felt his face heat up and would’ve pulled away if Thomas hadn’t gripped him harder. 

“They’re not flaunting anything Clyde! Stop being such a baby.”    
“I’m not a baby, I just-”    
“Oh look, the pizza’s here!” a slightly younger cousin exclaimed, trying to avoid the awkward conversation Clyde was trying to start. Everyone were set in motion as Catherine walked in with two large pizzas, some walking up to help her and some making room on the table. Once that was done they started eating, and the conversation was split up in the small groups. Newt felt like he could relax more now, but kept an eye on that Clyde guy just in case. Luckily for him the guy didn’t look over once while they ate. He let Thomas handle the conversations once they’d finished, until the dark haired boy leaned close to talk into his ear. 

“Do you want to go upstairs?” 

  
  


***

 

As they walked upstairs Thomas felt a happiness inside that he hadn’t felt since they’d moved. He looked over his shoulder to see the now familiar mop of blonde tousled hair walking right behind him. He reached out his hand, which made Newt look up, smile and then lace their fingers together. When they reached the top of the stairs Newts smile had finally reached his eyes and Thomas playfully pulled his hand so that the two of them stumbled down the hallway to Thomas’s room, giggling. Both of them collapsed on Thomas’s giant bed, all tangled up still laughing. Thomas had once more somehow ended up on top of the blonde almost suffocating Newt underneath him. 

“Oh bugger off, you’re crushing me down here!” Newt let out in a playful voice.

“I couldn’t quiet hear you down there, what did you say again?” Thomas said in an equally playful voice. 

“Can’t. Breathe. You’re killing your boyfriend down here!” Newt said while sarcastically gasping for air. 

“Well, we wouldn’t want that, would we?” Thomas lifted himself up on his elbows, looking down on Newt beneath him. Their faces were only centimeters apart, almost exactly as they had been that night by the pools. But this time it wasn’t Thomas who closed the distance between them, and Newt didn’t run away afterwards. Instead he just put his arms around Thomas’s neck and pulled him down into a tight, breathtaking hug. They stayed like that for a while, just enjoying their little moment. Thomas then rolled off and once more pulled Newt close as he turned on the TV to put on some kind of movie. With their limited attention span due to tiredness and each other, the movie just served as background noise most of the time. 

When hands started slipping from chests and eyelids started dropping, Thomas woke from his slumber as Newt’s phone started ringing from the small space between them. Out of habit Thomas glanced over at the ringing device to see who the caller was, recognizing the contactname as “Mum”. Newt quickly grabbed the phone and held it in his hands for a solid minute, just listening to the phone go off before turning it off and placing it on the bedside table. The silence in the room was loud after the phone had stopped ringing, and it made Thomas a bit nervous. 

“Is everything alright?” Newt quickly turned around and shook his head. 

“Yeah, it’s nothing.” Thomas wasn’t sure that Newt’s words were true. 

“Are you sure?” He stretched out a hand to stroke Newt’s cheek, and for a moment it looked as if Newt was about to tell him the truth. But the blonde boy quickly changed his expression into a soft smile, nodding his head. 

“I’m sure.” Newt grabbed the hand Thomas had put on his cheek and they looked at each other for a few seconds before Newt spoke again. “Kiss me?” For some reason the emotion in Newt’s voice made all of Thomas’ common sense disappear, and all he could do was to nod and kiss him. Hard. He heard Newt sigh with relief and let himself be pulled on top of the other boy. Newts hands moved up into his hair and it drove Thomas insane. He swept his tongue along Newts lower lip to make the other boy open up his mouth, but right as he did, he felt Newt flip the both of them, trapping Thomas underneath him. They looked at each other in surprise for a few seconds, before Newt decided to throw hesitation out the window and pull Thomas up for another kiss. Thomas grabbed at Newts thighs which were at either side of his hips as Newt started pulling at his shirt. Thomas lifted his arms as Newt quickly pulled off his shirt, and gave the blonde boy a moment to study him before putting a hand on his chin and lifting it to look him in the eyes. Without letting go of Newt’s chin, Thomas pulled him in for another deep kiss. Newt traced his hands over Thomas, now exposed, chest as they kissed. It made Thomas shiver, and he let his own hands roam Newts body. He slowed his hands and settled them on the hem of Newt’s shirt, playfully fiddling with it. Just letting his mouth explore Newt’s wasn’t enough, so soon he let his hands start tugging on the hem, needing the shirt on the floor. Newt luckily got the hint and quickly threw it off. A blush spread across Newt’s cheeks as he put a hand on Thomas’ chest and forced him to lay down on the bed again. When Newt then reconnected their lips Thomas had had enough of being trapped underneath the blonde boy, so he forcefully flipped them around again to once more gain the upper hand. That didn’t last long as Newt latched onto his neck, making Thomas melt. He let out a sigh as he felt Newt bite down on his collarbone, and he let his one hand tug at Newt’s hair. Trailing his hand all the way down Newt’s neck, over his shoulders and along his sides until he reached his hip. He stroked Newt’s hipbone with his thumb, before gripping it hard. Newt’s own hands had found their way down Thomas’ back and he settled them on the inside of Thomas’ jeans. Suddenly there was a burst of laughter from downstairs and both boys froze. After a few seconds Thomas heaved a sigh, glancing at the door. 

“I’d totally forgotten that they’re still down there.” Newt nodded, and pushed at Thomas chest so that they both could sit up. 

“It’s okay,” Newt said in a low voice. He then leaned forward and kissed Thomas sweetly one last time before lowering his head and settling it comfortably on Thomas’ chest. Without any more conversation Thomas was already drifting off to sleep with his head still spinning. 

 

Thomas heavily lifted one of his eyelids a while later when he felt his boyfriend’s head leave it’s spot on his chest. He couldn’t really make out what Newt was doing since he still was half asleep. As Newt left the bed Thomas woke up more, and he could see that he was holding his phone to his right ear. For some reason he thought it best to not make Newt aware that he was awake, and so kept still as the other boy walked towards the door that led to the bathroom. Newt didn’t say anything before he had closed the bathroom door behind him, but Thomas could still make out the words. 

“No, I’m still in town. I’m not leaving… I’ll come over in the morning, it’s the middle of the night… Yeah it’s okay…” Newt kept talking in a hushed voice, and Thomas understood that Newt was talking with his mom. He didn’t understand exactly what the conversation was about, but it seemed like Newt was trying to calm her down.The phone call didn’t last much longer, and Thomas could hear Newt coming back to bed. When he finally did, Newt scooted even closer to Thomas than before and he could hear the blonde start to fall asleep again soon after. That took Thomas a little longer, but after the worried thoughts stopped spinning around in his head, he finally got some peace and fell asleep with one thing still on his mind. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it, be sure to tell us your thoughts in the comments and any pointers you might have! We don't have any idea when the next chapter will be out but there will be one so be sure to keep an eye out ;)   
> Until next time! <3

**Author's Note:**

> If you found any mistakes, please tell us since English isn't our first language, and feedback is always appreciated.  
> 


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